The paper is concerned with the famous study "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" (1904/1905) by Max Weber. It analyzes both main content and context of this work. It is shown that the main idea of the "Protestant Ethic" is not originally one of Weber, but it was taken over from...

Abstract The purpose of the paper is to examine the methodology of Max Weber and outline its relation to the economic science. The fi rst part analyses Weber’s article “Objectivity in Social Science and Social Policy” (1904). The second part examines the paper titled “Meaning of Ethical...

Mainstream economics has been running the gauntlet of adverse criticism for decades. These critiques claim as a message of central importance that mainstream economics has lost its relevance as for understanding reality. By making a brief comparison between the methodological strategies of the...

Mainstream economics has been running the gauntlet of adverse criticism for decades. These critiques claim as a message of central importance that mainstream economics has lost its relevance as for understanding reality. By making a brief comparison between the methodological strategies of the...

The nature of learning processes as well as evolutionary considerations suggest that aesthetic judgement is of central importance in the formation of custom. Learning and extrapolation rely on evaluations of non-instrumental features like simplicity, analogy, straightforwardness, and clarity....

This paper studies the research interests, paradigmatic orientation and political orientation of about 700 full professors of economics at universities located in German-speaking countries. In doing so, we captured biographical and institutional information on these professorships by collecting...

The paper presents some of the ideas underlying the current research program of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (MPIfG). It begins with a discussion of how the institute’s programmatic orientation has evolved since it was founded in 1984. Programmatic change over the years...

The article presents Max Weber as an economist. Weber's relation to economics is discussed. His inaugural speech in Freiburg "National State and Economic Policy" (1895), "Lectures on General (Theoretical) Economics" (1898), writings about stock exchange (1893-1898) as well as his article...

The paper poses the question whether the economics of science could be the key to economic methodology. First, the sociology of science, which tries to put science in social context, is described. Then, the economic approach to science, inspired by Tullock, Stigler and Becker, is explained. We...