The rationalization of social action models

This chapter maintains that four types of rationality (practical, theoretical, substantive, and formal) establish the orienting conceptual framework for Weber’s sociology of civilizations. This basic and indispensable framework is reconstructed in broad-ranging sections on the “rationalization” of social action and his “rationality models.” Weber “locates” the latter constructs in the rulership, law, religion, and economy domains. They are, as heuristic tools, instrumental for his analysis of the uniqueness of a variety of civilizations (see Chapters 10–19).