Could a student of philosophical thought ever be interested in the work of a sociologist who explicitly places his cognitive project outside the boundaries of philosophy? And yet, Max Weber's work is not an exercise in extreme positivism, as is often believed. The reflection inherent in it regarding the methodology of a purely empirical historical science has its roots in a theory of modernity, intervenes in the dispute between historians and economists of Weber's time, and owes much to the thought of Marx and Nietzsche.
Under what conditions can one understand human actions in a social environment? Can the sciences of man, especially history and sociology, exploit laws with universal validity, like those of the natural sciences? In these questions, which always remain relevant, Weber's work offers answers that can hardly be considered outdated.
Above all, Weber invites us to seek the connections between scientific rationality and the structures that constitute the world we call "the West".

It includes the chapters: "At the sources of Weberian methodology: the war against the German historical school", "Max Weber and Marxism", "Rationalization and disenchantment of the world", "The logic of understanding".