Weber and Durkheim A Methodological Comparison [Paperback]

Weber and Durkheim: A methodological comparisonis a systematic, comparative analysis of the methodologies of Max Weber and ?mile Durkheim. Jensen shows how Weber and Durkheim analyse Protestants and Catholics in practice in The Protestant Ethicand 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.

Acknowledgements.  Abbreviations.  1. Weber and Durkheim  1.1 Weber and Durkheim: a methodological comparison  1.2 Why Weber and Durkheim?  1.3 Methodology and research practice in Weber and Durkheim  1.4 How Weber and Durkheim?  2. Analyzing Protestants and Catholics  2.1 Durkheim: Protestants, Catholics  and suicide  2.2 Weber: Protestants, Catholics  and capitalism  3. Social ontology  3.1 Weber: a chaos perception  3.2 Durkheim: a cosmos perception  4. Epistemology  4.1 Durkheim: inductivism  4.2 Weber: neo-Kantianism  5. Science and values  5.1 Weber: the gulf between Is and Ought  5.2 Durkheim: the bridge between Is and Ouló(