IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ajecsc/v63y2004i5p987-1020.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Max Weber

Author

Listed:
  • Helge Peukert

Abstract

. This paper argues that Weber's outline and research program is only of limited relevance for present‐day economic sociology and heterodox economics because Weber had a rather narrow and static understanding of rationality and the economy. Uncertainty, both as a basic fact of economic life and in the interpretation of what rational action means in specific contexts, is missing in his approach. After a short discussion of the secondary literature on Weber's methodology, the paper focuses on the most important writings of Weber on methods and economics (e.g., his outline and some parts of Economy and Society). The result of our investigation is that Weber shared a rather narrow, neoclassical understanding of the Austrian variant of economics. His important construction of goal‐oriented behavior as the major methodological advice to analyze human action presupposes the idealized assumptions of perfect knowledge. His understanding of the market exchange process, price setting, and the functioning of full competition are rather conventional and elementary. Weber's genius did not materialize in the field of economics, but in his sociology of religion and law and in his sociology of domination.

Suggested Citation

  • Helge Peukert, 2004. "Max Weber," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(5), pages 987-1020, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:63:y:2004:i:5:p:987-1020
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1536-7150.2004.00332.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1536-7150.2004.00332.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1536-7150.2004.00332.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Schweitzer, Arthur, 1970. "Max Weber's Economy & Society: A Review Article," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 1203-1209, December.
    2. Allen Oakley, 1997. "The Foundations of Austrian Economics from Menger to Mises," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 860.
    3. Tribe,Keith, 1995. "Strategies of Economic Order," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521462914, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay, 2017. "Paternalism and the public household. On the domestic origins of public economics," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 17032, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    2. Michael Litschka & Kristoffel Grechenig, 2010. "Law by human intent or evolution? Some remarks on the Austrian school of economics’ role in the development of law and economics," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 57-79, February.
    3. Kolev, Stefan & Köhler, Ekkehard A., 2021. "Transatlantic Roads to Mont Pèlerin: "Old Chicago" and Freiburg in a World of Disintegrating Orders," Working Papers 309, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    4. Giocoli, Nicola, 2008. "Competition vs. property rights: American antitrust law, the Freiburg School and the early years of European competition policy," MPRA Paper 33807, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Bruce E. Kaufman, 2010. "The Theoretical Foundation of Industrial Relations and its Implications for Labor Economics and Human Resource Management," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 64(1), pages 74-108, October.
    6. Maltby, Josephine, 1997. "Accounting and the soul of the middle class: Gustav Freytag's Soll und Haben," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 69-87, January.
    7. Alexandre Mendes Cunha, 2011. "Polizei and the System of Public Finance: Tracing the Impact of Cameralism in Eighteenth-Century Portugal," Chapters, in: Heinz D. Kurz & Tamotsu Nishizawa & Keith Tribe (ed.), The Dissemination of Economic Ideas, chapter 3, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Reinert, Erik S., 2004. "How rich nations got rich. Essays in the history of economic policy," MPRA Paper 48147, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Werner Bonefeld, 2018. "Stateless Money and State Power: Europe as ordoliberal Ordnungsgef?ge," HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2018(1), pages 5-26.
    10. Madarász, Aladár, 2002. "Kameralizmus, történelmi iskola, osztrák gazdaságtan. Három vázlat a német és osztrák közgazdasági diskurzus történetéből [Cameralism, the historical school and Austrian economics. Three outlines f," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(10), pages 838-857.
    11. Phiilippe Gillig, 2016. "Why German historicists were wrong to put John Stuart through the Mill," Working Papers of BETA 2016-43, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    12. Gregor Zwirn, 2009. "Ludwig von Mises on the epistemological foundation for social sciences reconstructed," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 22(1), pages 81-107, March.
    13. Erik Grimmer-Solem & Roberto Romani, 1999. "In search of full empirical reality: historical political economy, 1870-1900," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(3), pages 333-364.
    14. Peukert, Helge, 2006. "Justi's moral economics and his system of taxation (1766)," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 59(4), pages 478-496, April.
    15. Rejane de Fátima Araújo, 2007. "Auditórios E Argumentação Em Teoria Do Desenvolvimento Econômico," Anais do XXXV Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 35th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 045, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    16. Caldwell Bruce J., 2002. "Wieser, Hayek and Equilibrium Theory," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-22, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:63:y:2004:i:5:p:987-1020. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0002-9246 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.