Werner Sombart: a stranger in sociological tradition?

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1590/s0102-6992-202237010012

Keywords:

War, luxury and capitalism; religion and capitalism; bourgeois and entrepreneur; future of capitalism; the USA and socialism

Abstract

Endowed with a great fame in the main sociological milieus worldwide roughly a century ago, the name of Werner Sombart tended afterwards to fall into a penumbra of near-oblivion, being normally excluded from the current sociological pantheon. This was much probably due to, among other factors, his late support for Nazism. Nevertheless, his considerations on the relationship of capitalism with war, luxury and religious ethics, particularly the Jewish ethics, the value ambivalence of capitalist mentality (with the bourgeois-entrepreneur antinomy), the periodization and future trajectory of capitalism, the singularities of North-American political life, were all once very renowned, and are still more than worthy of careful reflection. Sombart left several unresolved questions, which are still capable of addressing us directly and vividly today. Being a half-forgotten author of the sociological tradition, he is nevertheless, under more than one perspective, plentifully our contemporary.

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Author Biography

João Carlos Graça, SOCIUS/CSG, ISEG-UL

Agregação em Sociologia Económica; Doutoramento em Economia/ História do Pensamento Económico.

Professor Auxiliar com Agregação do Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal.

References

Filiação institucional:

SOCIUS/CSG, ISEG, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8791-6753

Published

2022-04-14

How to Cite

Graça, J. C. (2022). Werner Sombart: a stranger in sociological tradition?. Sociedade E Estado, 37(01). https://doi.org/10.1590/s0102-6992-202237010012