ABSTRACT
Ferdinand Toennies, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber have in common that they are placed in the same period in history. They are aware of one overriding problem, which is still the problem today, namely, that traditional society is breaking down, that a new society is painfully ushered in and that social science is needed as people aide in that situation of uncertainty. Max Weber's argument is clearly historical. In contrast to Weber, Durkheim's argument is sociologistic rather than sociological in the sense that there is no other reality but "Society" and no morality that is not societal in nature, although there are as many moralities as there are historical societies. Toennies considered the philosophy of Hobbes under the aspect of sociology of knowledge. Toennies maintains that Weber did not deny that socioeconomic realities are as important for the derivation of modes of religious expression as are religious ideas for the development of the attitudes that shape economic life.
