Max weber as an economist and as a sociologist: Towards a fuller understanding of Weber's view of economics

In this article I first give a picture of Weber as an economist, mainly by focussing on a text which he distributed to his students when he taught eco nomics in the 1890s, From this text it is, for example, clear that Weber wa s positive to the use of marginal utility theory in theoretical economics, but also felt that this approach was insufficient, by itself, to analyze em pirical phenomena. I then outline Weber's work in:economic sociology, relyi ng primarily on Economy and Society and its central Chapter 2 ("Sociologica l Categories of Economic Action"). The differences between the approaches o f economic theory and economic sociology, as seen by Weber, are summarized, and an account is given of some of Weber's most suggestive concepts in eco nomic sociology. In the concluding section the question is raised as to whe n the analyst, according to Weber should use economic sociology rather than economic theory, and vice versa, Weber's ideas about a broad economic scie nce-what he termed Sozialokonomik or social economics-are also presented.