Weber and Durkheim—A Methodological Comparison

Weber and Durkheim: A methodological comparison is a systematic, comparative analysis of the methodologies of Max Weber and Emile Durkheim. Jensen shows how Weber and Durkheim analyse Protestants and Catholics in practice in The Protestant Ethic and Suicide, respectively. The very different ways that Weber and Durkheim carry out their analyses are then used to describe, analyse and contrast their methodological principles and points of view, raising fundamental questions in sociological and social science analysis, such as:

• What constitutes the object of sociology?
• How are concepts developed?
• What status can be attributed to laws?
• Which possibilities – and limitations – do we have for producing scientific insight into society?
• What are we to think of the relationship between ‘Is’ and ‘Ought’ – and how can social science deal with values?
• How are social phenomena to be explained?

This book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of sociology, social methodology, political theory, political science, social theory and philosophy.

Henrik Jensen, Dr.Scient.Pol. and Ph.D. in Political Science, is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen and has written and lectured on social science methodology.