2. some continuities between Adam Smith's political economy and Max Weber's social economics

Abstract

In this chapter we present an indicative exemplar of continuity between economics and sociology. This exemplar involves Adam Smith and Max Weber, two major protagonists in the establishment and development of economics and sociology. The point of departure is that Weber's work implies substantial continuities or serendipitous points of overlap with Smith's. The major continuity lies in Weber's elaboration and specification of Smith's political economy into social economics. This is epitomized by Weber's extension of Smith's implicit ‘economic sociology’ or ‘sociological economics’ dealing with the social setting of the economy into an explicit social economics, as an analysis of the ‘sociological categories of economic action’. There is some gap in exploring this continuity in the present literature on the history of economic thought and methodology, and this chapter contributes toward spanning this gap.

Citation

Zafirovski, M.Z. (2000), "2. some continuities between Adam Smith's political economy and Max Weber's social economics", A Research Annual (Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, Vol. 18 Part 1), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 43-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0743-4154(00)18022-8