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Chaloupek, Günther --- "Werner Sombart (1863–1941)" [2005] ELECD 179; in Backhaus, G. Jürgen (ed), "The Elgar Companion to Law and Economics, Second Edition" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005)

Book Title: The Elgar Companion to Law and Economics, Second Edition

Editor(s): Backhaus, G. Jürgen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845420321

Section: Chapter 55

Section Title: Werner Sombart (1863–1941)

Author(s): Chaloupek, Günther

Number of pages: 6

Extract:

55 Werner Sombart (1863­1941)
Günther Chaloupek


The German Historical school of which Werner Sombart was a member had
developed in the nineteenth century as a school of economic thought alterna-
tive to the classical school, which it criticized for its abstract theoretical
approach. Sometimes recognizing and sometimes questioning the scientific
legitimacy of deductive economic laws, the Historical school put its main
emphasis on the changeable and changing conditions which constitute the
reality in which economic laws operate. Its research efforts were therefore
devoted, to a large extent, to institutions and, especially, to the evolution of
institutions in time.
Werner Sombart, who is generally considered the leading member of the
third and last generation of the Historical school ­ together with the sociol-
ogist Max Weber ­ has produced the most comprehensive synthesis of the
enormous research work of the Historical school with his book Der moderne
Kapitalismus which was completed by the third volume in 1927. An earlier
version had been published in 1902, but the critical reception it had encoun-
tered, especially from Sombart's teacher, Gustav von Schmoller, had convinced
Sombart of the necessity of both a more detailed empirical foundation and a
more thorough analysis of the subject.
Born in 1863 in Ermsleben (Prussia), Sombart studied political economy at
the universities of Berlin, Pisa and Rome. His doctoral dissertation on ten-
ancy and labour relations in the Roman campagna was completed under the
supervision of Gustav Schmoller and published in 1888. The main focus of
this book ...