Project: What is Rational?
Your Mission, should you decide to accept it:
Answer the questions found below as a group. 
Hand in one answer with everyone's name
 - First & last and in alphabetical order by last name
 - Include only members who are present
Indicate the date:  ________________________ 		 Indicate the name of the class:     ____________________
Indicate the name of the Project:  ____________________
Be thorough; write good answers
Use your time wisely. 
Be finished by the end of the allotted time
Project: What is Rational?

Weber, like Marx, is a social evolutionist who believes there is change & it is natural, directional, immanent, continuous, & derived from uniform causes. For Weber, the change is that individuals, & especially society is becoming more rational. He makes this argument in two manners. One through his own socio historical analysis of the progression from the Ancient to the Middle Ages to the Modern Era. He claims the modern era is more rationalized than the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages were more rationalized than the Ancient Era, etc. Second through his analysis of bureaucracy he shows how this organization of administration, the merit system & more is more rational that the Middle Ages organizations of favoritism, cronyism, patriarchy, & so on.

Discuss your own view on this. Give examples in ancient & recent history to support your pt of view. If you can, give examples of events in your own lifetime or those you know to support your pt of view.

1.  List some important decisions that you have made or you know someone has made. 
2.  Which ones do you now consider rational or not? 
3.  Given what we have learned about rationality, why were these decisions rational or not?

The End