ABSTRACT
Talcott Parsons tried to demonstrate that, in their different languages, the three men actually conceived in related ways what might be called the "formal" structure of the sociological explanation of behavior. The origin of this formal similarity is the problem of science vs. religion, which is common to them. Emile Durkheim is a philosopher of the French university. He is a spiritual descendant of Auguste Comte, and his thinking also focuses on the necessity for social consensus. Modern society is and will be bureaucratic and rational. But Max Weber was afraid that a society of this type might serve to suppress what in his eyes made life worth living, that is, personal choice, awareness of responsibility, action, faith. Weber does not envision a scientific morality, like Durkheim; nor does he heap sarcasm upon the traditional sentiments or the "scientific religions," like Vilfredo Pareto.
