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The legacy of Max Weber and the early Austrians

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  • Stefan Kolev

    (University of Applied Sciences Zwickau
    Wilhelm Röpke Institute)

Abstract

This paper explores Max Weber’s intellectual relationship to the first generations of the Austrian School. Challenging his portrayal as a one-sided historicist, the paper reconstructs Weber’s intense involvement with the Viennese economists from the 1890s to his passing in 1920 and his efforts to overcome the fronts left behind by the Methodenstreit. Section 2 discusses a number of necessary conditions for declaring a scholarly community a “school”. Section 3 systematizes the multiple biographical connections, especially Weber’s nexus to Friedrich von Wieser and Joseph Schumpeter. Section 4 focuses on the research program of Social Economics during the first decades of the twentieth century as the “irenic formula” for the post-Methodenstreit hostilities. Within Social Economics, economic sociology constitutes an “intermediary” layer between economic theory and economic history, addressing the institutional properties of the framework surrounding the processes of human action and exchange. Depending on the relative importance and qualifying power of economic sociology vis-à-vis economic theory, the paper distinguishes two varieties of Social Economics, a “universalist” and an “institutionalist” one.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefan Kolev, 2020. "The legacy of Max Weber and the early Austrians," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 33(1), pages 33-54, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:revaec:v:33:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s11138-019-00445-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s11138-019-00445-0
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    4. Stefan Kolev, 2018. "Early Economic Sociology and Contextual Economics: The Weber-Wieser Connection," Journal of Contextual Economics (JCE) – Schmollers Jahrbuch, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 138(1), pages 1-30.
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    Cited by:

    1. Barbara Kolm, 2021. "What Carl Menger Can Teach Us 150 Years after His Principles of Economics," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 36(Winter 20), pages 63-74.
    2. Stefan Kolev, 2018. "Early Economic Sociology and Contextual Economics: The Weber-Wieser Connection," Journal of Contextual Economics (JCE) – Schmollers Jahrbuch, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 138(1), pages 1-30.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Max Weber; Joseph Schumpeter; Schools in economic thought; Methodenstreit; Social economics; Economic sociology;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B13 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Neoclassical through 1925 (Austrian, Marshallian, Walrasian, Wicksellian)
    • B15 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary
    • B53 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Austrian
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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