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History of the Human Sciences
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Between Scylla and Charybdis: Reinhard Bendix on theory, concepts and comparison in Max Weber's historical sociology

Raymond Caldwell

Birkbeck College, University of London, Malet Street Extension, Office 6073, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK, R.Caldwell{at}bbk.ac.uk

Reinhard Bendix made a major contribution to the early reception and interpretation of Max Weber's work. His classic study, Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait (1960), developed a remarkably consistent interpretation of Weber as a comparative historical sociologist. Bendix also emulated and subtly reinterpreted in his own work key aspects of Weber's comparative method and research strategies. By searching for a middle course between `Scylla and Charybdis', between the abstractions of theoretical concepts and the richness of empirical evidence, Bendix sought to reinterpret and renew the vital centre of Weber's comparative enterprise as a study of western uniqueness. In so doing, he decisively challenged Talcott Parsons's alternative methodological reading of Weber's work. Yet, curiously Bendix's status as a Weber interpreter and comparative historian profoundly influenced by Weber's legacy has often been neglected or misinterpreted. This article re-examines Bendix's classic reading of Weber's corpus, and the way in which he sought to keep alive in his substantive work the promise and spirit of Weber's comparative historical sociology.

Key Words: comparative method • historical explanation • ideal types • modernity • Talcott Parsons • universal concepts

History of the Human Sciences, Vol. 15, No. 3, 25-51 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/0952695102015003166
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