Werner Sombart and Max Weber from the point of the accounting of the rational economic action

Werner Sombart (1863–1941) and Max Weber (1864-1920), started in a academic polemic on the contribution of Jews or Puritans to modern Western civilization. M. Weber accepted the nucleus of rationalism in Calvinism’s a mode of methodic and economic life. According to Weber, the Calvinist interpretation of the doctrine of predestination, as it influenced everyday behaviour, underlies the achievement drive of capitalist society. Weber argued that the causal role of Jews in capitalist development was so limitted, because Jews are very traditionalistic. Sombart argued, against Weber, that Protestantism is mystic, but European Jewry resists the mystic life. Also Sombart insisted that Jews are inner-worldly ascetic and associated asceticism with self-control.