Introduction

These constructs have seldom been addressed in a manner that indicates both their broad scope in Weber’s empirical works and their sweeping analytical range. They are extracted here from a wide array of his texts, defined in a succinct manner, and reconstructed. The various ways in which these “types” comprise cornerstones for a variety of rationalization processes are then examined. Chapter 1 concludes with a discussion of the capacity of the four types of rationality to conceptualize central aspects and dilemmas of our own era. As in Chapters 2 and 3, a dialogue with schools prominent in Sociology today extends throughout Chapter 1.