Methodology of the Social Sciences, Ethics, and Economics in the Newer Historical School: From Max Weber and Rickert to Sombart and Rothacker (Studies in Economic Ethics and Philosophy)

The volume at hand gives an exposition of the tradition of the Historical School of Economics and of the Geisteswissenschaften or human sciences, the latter in their development within the Historical School as well as in Neo-Kantianism and the sociology of knowledge. It continues the discussion started in the year 1994 on the Older Historical School of Economics and the 19th century German contribution to an ethical theory of economics with the Newer Historical School of the 20th century.Economists, social scientists, and philosophers examine the contribution of this tradition and its impact for present theory. The schools of thought and their approaches to economics as well as to the cultural and social sciences are examined here not as much for their historical interest as for their potential systematic contribution to the contemporary debates on economic ethics, economics, sociology, and philosophy.In this volume, the debate about the German tradition of economics and of the cultural and social sciences is extended from the Historical School to other approaches in the German tradition, to Neo-Kantianism, the sociology of knowledge in Max Scheler and Karl Mannheim, and to Georg Simmel's approach to the money economy. The influence of the Historical School on other traditions of thought, in the volume at hand on the Austrian School of Economics and on American, British, Japanese and Russian economic science, is examined in addition to the presentation of the German theorists. Front Matter....Pages I-XII Front Matter....Pages 1-1 The Present Relevance of Max Weber’s Wertrationalität (Value Rationality)....Pages 3-31 Max Weber and Ludwig von Mises, and the Methodology of the Social Sciences....Pages 32-55 Front Matter....Pages 57-57 Value Theory and the Foundations of the Cultural Sciences. Remarks on Rickert....Pages 59-78 The Sociology of Knowledge and Diagnosis of Time with Max Scheler and Karl Mannheim....Pages 79-114 Georg Simmel’s Contribution to a Theory of the Money Economy....Pages 115-144 Front Matter....Pages 145-145 Ethics and Economics in the Work of Werner Sombart....Pages 147-167 Historical Changes and Economics in Arthur Spiethoff’s Theory of Wirtschaftsstil (Style of an Economic System)....Pages 168-193 Hans Freyer’s Economic Philosophy After World War II....Pages 194-208 Business Ethics in Older German Business Administration: Heinrich Nicklisch, Wilhelm Kalveram, August Marx....Pages 209-227 Front Matter....Pages 229-229 Carl Menger and the Historicism in Economics....Pages 231-258 The ‘Irrelevance’ of Ethics for the Austrian School....Pages 259-287 Front Matter....Pages 289-289 The Historicism of John R. Commons’s Legal Foundations of Capitalism ....Pages 291-318 Frank Knight and the Historical School....Pages 319-341 Method and Marshall....Pages 342-371 Front Matter....Pages 373-373 Two Developments of the Concept of Anschauliche Theorie (Concrete Theory) in Germany and Japan....Pages 375-412 Some Reflections on Ethics and Economics Concerning the German Historical School and Its Reception in Russia....Pages 413-425 Front Matter....Pages 427-427 The Old and the New Institutionalism in Economics....Pages 429-466 Moral Leadership in Ethical Economics....Pages 467-487 Front Matter....Pages 489-489 Theories of History and of Education in Germany and France During the 19th Century....Pages 491-509 A Philosophy of the Historical School: Erich Rothacker’s Theory of the Geisteswissenschaften (Human Sciences)....Pages 510-531 Front Matter....Pages 533-533 Germany, Japan and National Economics: An Alternative Paradigm of Modernity?....Pages 535-551 Back Matter....Pages 552-565 The volume at hand gives an exposition of the tradition of the Historical School of Economics and of the Geisteswissenschaften or human sciences, the latter in their development within the Historical School as well as in Neo-Kantianism and the sociology of knowledge. It continues the discussion started in the year 1994 on the Older Historical School of Economics and the 19th century German contribution to an ethical theory of economics with the Newer Historical School of the 20th century. Economists, social scientists, and philosophers examine the contribution of this tradition and its impact for present theory. The schools of thought and their approaches to economics as well as to the cultural and social sciences are examined here not as much for their historical interest as for their poten­ tial systematic contribution to the contemporary debates on economic ethics, economics, sociology, and philosophy. The volume at hand contains the proceedings of the Fourth Annual SEEP-Conference on Economic Ethics and Philosophy in 1996, "Economics and Ethics in the Historical School. Part B: Max Weber, Heinrich Rickert, Max Scheler, Werner Sombart, Arthur Spiethoff, John Commons, Alfred Marshall, and Others", held at Marienrode Monastery near Hannover, Germa­ ny, on March 27-30th, 1996, together with several additional invited papers. 4e de couverture: The volume gives an exposition of the achievement and present relevance of the Newer Historical School of Economics and of the theory of the Human Sciences that accompanied its development. It describes the methodology of economics and the social sciences, the economic ethics, and the theory of the social and human sciences in the Historical School. It shows how its emphasis moved from an ethical economics or ethical economy to the methodology of the social and economic sciences. Together with the volume on the theory of ethical economy in the Older Historical School, the reader is provided with an encyclopedic description and analysis of the entire Historical School and of the German speaking tradition of economics and the social sciences in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century

The volume gives an exposition of the achievement and present relevance of the Newer Historical School of Economics and of the theory of the Humane Sciences that accompanied its development. It describes the methodology of economics and the social sciences, the economic ethics, and the theory of the social and human sciences in the Historical School. It shows how its emphasis moved from an ethical economics or ethical economy to the methodology of the social and economic sciences. Together with the volume on the theory of ethical economy in the Older Historical School, the reader is provided with an encyclopedic description and analysis of the entire Historical School and of the German speaking tradition of economics and the social sciences in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century.

What I called the "pedestrian" interpretation of the notion of axiological rationality may be more profound that it may seem at first sight.