After 1908, Ostwald redirected his philosophy to sociological and cultural phenomena as part of sociological energetics (). He attempted to create a hierarchy to classify the sciences and social sciences based on life, energy and order.
Sociologist Max Weber oppossed Ostwald views. In 1909, Weber accussed sociological energetics of being ideological, underrating the complexity of the social sciences and overrating the importance of recasting phenomena in energetic terminology. Weber also objects to the idea of psychological energy to explain psychology and accusses Ostwald of trying to derive an is from an ought.