ABSTRACT
The positivist tradition which Emile Durkheim inherited did not prevent him from seeing that simple observation was useless unless criteria could be provided to help in deciding what should be observed. Durkheim's main achievement was to bring sociology and anthropology together and to forge common concepts which helped the two subjects to advance together in an orderly way. Max Weber's achievement was more far-reaching, for he brought the scientific tradition of sociological thought into relationship with the historical tradition of German scholarship. Weber's belief that scientific method was relevant to social studies encouraged him to establish a set of operational definitions and to construct concepts which could be used. Weber compares these guilds to those in medieval Europe, but he is careful to point out that unlike the latter they did not lead to a growth of autonomy for the city. Weber pointed to the relationships between religion, economic attitudes and the emergence of social groupings.
