ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the logical foundations of Max Weber's legal sociology. It considers the criticisms of the Weberian ideal-typical method set out by two leading American scholars, John R. Commons and Talcott Parsons. The publication of his magnum opus, Institutional Economics, in 1934 gave Commons the opportunity to refine his critique of the Weberian ideal type. Like Weber, Commons distinguishes clearly between philosophy or metaphysics and the field of science. Parsons' critique of the Weberian ideal type appears mainly in his early essays and his first major work, The Structure of Social Action, published in 1937. The first phase of Parsons' early works centred on the analysis of modern capitalism. In the second part of his study, displaying a thorough knowledge of Weber's works, Parsons compared the Weberian ideal-typical method with the one used by Sombart to study modern capitalism. The third and final phase of Parsons' early work dealt with the founding of analytical sociology.
