Is Means-Ends Rationality Dominant? On some Interpretations of Weber's Typology of Action

Abstract

This article discusses various attempts in the Weber literature to reconstruct the logic underlying Weber's typology of social action and concludes that means-ends rationality enjoys only what has been called a heuristic primacy over other types (Wolfgang Schluchter).

Keywords

• action theory in sociology
• means-ends rationality
• value rationality
• Max Weber
• Talcott Parsons