- Werner Stark
Werner Stark (* 2 December 1909,
Marienbad ,Austrian Empire , now in theCzech Republic ; † 4 October 1985,Salzburg ,Austria ) was a sociologist and economist, who has made important contributions to thesociology of knowledge , thesociology of religion and thehistory of economic thought .Biography
Werner Stark was the son of a doctor. After completing his secondary education in Marienbad, he enrolled in the University of Hamburg to study economics and social sciences. He also took courses in history and philosophy.In 1933 he left Germany for political reasons and moved to Prague. There he worked as an economic journalist and bank employee, studied law and worked as a part-time lecturer. In 1939 he had to leave again. After an adventurous journey through Bratislava, Vienna, Cologne and the Netherlands, he arrived in England. There he received a grant from the "Society for the Protection of Science and Learning" and established himself with his wife Käte in Cambridge. Soon after his arrival he published an article in the Economic Journal on
Jeremy Bentham (1941). This brought him into contact withJohn Maynard Keynes who helped him to obtain a teaching position inCambridge University .Major publications
* "Liberty and Equality, or Jeremy Bentham as an Economist, I. Bentham's Doctrine", "EJ", 1941
* "The Ideal Foundations of Economic Thought", 1943 (repr. 1975)
* "The History of Economics in its Relation to Social Development", 1944
* "Jeremy Bentham as an Economist, II. Bentham's Influence", "EJ", 1946
* "Diminishing Utility Reconsidered", "Kyklos", 1947
* "America: Ideal and Reality" (1947)
* "Stable Equilibrium Re-examined", "Kyklos", 1947
* (edited) "Jeremy Benthams Economics Writings"(3 vols.), 1952-54
* "The Sociology of Knowledge: An Essay in Aid of a Deeper Understanding of the History of Ideas", 1958
* "The 'Classical Situation' in Political Economy", "Kyklos", 1959
* "The Fundamental Forms of Social Thought", 1963
* "The Sociology of Religion"(5 vols.), 1966-72
* "The Social Bond"(6 vols.), 1976-87
* "History and Historians of Political Economy" (ed. Charles M.A. Clark), 1994econdary sources
* Clark, Charles M.A.(2001) - "Werner Stark and the sociology of knowledge approach to the history of economics", in "Historians of Economics and Economic Thought. The Construction of Disciplinary Memory", ed. Steven G. Medema and Warren J. Samuels, Routledge.
* Leonard, Eileen B. (ed.)(1993) - "In Search of Community: Essays in Memory of Werner Stark, 1905-85", Fordham UP
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