The Role of Religious Ideas and the Use of Models in Max Weber's Comparative Studies of Non-Capitalist Societies

The theme of this conference, “The Organizational Forms of Economic Life and Their Evolution,” implies a concern for specifying the limits of the applicability of classical and neo-classical economic theory. Presumably because we sociologists have been in the forefront of those who insist on the recognition of these limits, I have been asked to present a paper from the viewpoint of historical sociology. Now I suppose that your field and mine are alike in at least one respect: the infrequency of finding any one view on a broad and significant question. I am sure you will understand, therefore, my concentration on some lessons to be learned from the work of one of the heroes of my discipline, Max Weber (1864–1920). Weber, as you may know, was, among his other titles, a professor of economics and avoided the epithet of “sociologist.” Yet because sociology has changed since his day, largely under his influence, and because he was also a professor of law and of political science, we sociologists have now claimed him. Nevertheless, many of the issues that informed his massive scholarly research were and are issues central to both your field and mine.