ABSTRACT
Although “rationality” and its diverse manifestations in historical rationalization processes have been universally acknowledged as a major, and perhaps the major, theme in Max Weber’s corpus, only a few commentators have endeavored to investigate this theme or to relate the various types of rationality to one another. The attempts by Schluchter (Roth and Schluchter 1979: 14-15) and Weiß (1975: 137-8) are plagued by a common shortcoming: both note “usages” or “dimensions” of rationality that cannot be consistently traced back to the frequent discussions of rationality and rationalization processes in Economy and Society (E&S) and the Collected Essays in the Sociology of Religion series (CESR). Moreover, their definitions do not coincide with Weber’s various historical-sociological analyses of the paths followed by rationalization processes in different civilizations. Donald Levine’s (1985) discussion avoids these difficulties by adhering largely to Weber’s terminology; however, he fails to discuss this concept comprehensively and avoids an investigation of the manner in which the types of rationality combine or struggle against one another in history as separate rationalization processes. Furthermore, like the expositions by Ulrike Vogel (1973) and Ann Swidler (1973), Levine’s distinction between Weber’s types of social action and types of rationality is insufficiently differentiated.
