Alfred Schutz attempts to provide a sound 
This is a masterpiece of social philosophy, an provides and important bridge between classical sociology and phenomenological philosophy. Personally, I view it as one of the best scholarly treaties on this issue I have ever read – it is also excellently written. It is very rigorous, and raises a number of excellent and important questions.
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This study by one of the founding fathers of scoiology, 
Weber discovered that in Germany, Protestants tended to be wealthier and better educated than Catholics because Protestants showed a special tendency to develop “economic rationalism”; that is, a particular approach to creating wealth that was less focused on the gain of comfort than on the pursuit of profit itself. The general outlook on life and work that the early protestants sects drew from their belief made them singularly well adapted to modern capitalism, according to Weber.
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Adam Smith uses historical examples and analytical thinking 
in this wonderful book which more than any laid the foundations of modern economics.
He viewed labor as the source of value, explored the need for specialization of labor and the emergence of markets for labor. He introduced the assumption underlying modern rational theorizing that each individual pursues their best interests.
The concepts of marginal utility and scarcity are foreshadowed in his work. Hw showed how, under ideal circumstances, supply and demand meet to clear markets. He discussed that macro consequences of competition where each actor was motivated by his own best interests, and showed that it could lead to better conditions for all, as if by an “invisible hand.”.
He also emphasized the importance of government in providing international and domestic security as well as providing public works and institutions such as education (the minimalist state).
This is still a great and important introduction to modern economics.
The Bantam paperback version contains Smith’s complete and unabridged final version of the Wealth of Nations. It also provides footnotes on Smith’s wording, the historical context, and the differences between Smith’s 5th edition and previous editions.
PS: Theory of Moral Sentiments
“Adam Smith’s enormous authority resides, in the end, in the same property that we discover in Marx: not in any ideology, but in an effort to see to the bottom of things” –Robert L. Heilbroner
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David Ricardo (1772 – 1823)
Ricardo has often been credited with systematizing economics, and surely has been one of the most influential of the classical economists, along with Thomas Malthus and Adam Smith. His writings also influenced Karl Marx.
Ricardo was also a member of Parliament, businessman, financier and speculator, who amassed a considerable personal fortune.
Ricardo is perhaps most remembered for his contribution to the theory of comparative advantage. This theory, which he partly borrowed (from Robert Torrens), provides a fundamental argument in favor of free trade between countries and of specialization among individuals. Ricardo showed that, under a given set of assumptions, there is mutual benefit from exchange even if one party is more productive in every possible area than its trading counterpart as long as each concentrates on the activities where it has a relative productivity advantage. This important conclusion is also often referred to in discussion of international trade.
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Emile Durkheim developed the social theory of Auguste Comte further towards an academic field. He was a structural functionalist.
This is a very important contribution to classic social theory and to sociology. It is also an early conceptualization of structural functionalist theorizing.
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