Introduction

The complicated, potentially problematic, and puzzling relationship between money and medicine is analytically framed as a tension between monetary gains (money-purpose attitude) and ethical professionalism (money-means attitude) among medical doctors. This money—medicine tension—is examined in contrast with sociological literature on money, highlighting the dimensions of neutrality (vs. non-neutrality) and middle-range theories (vs. general theories) as ways of viewing different sociological approaches. By also drawing on literature on the professions, it is argued that a qualitative empirical study—assuming the non-neutrality of money and using a pragmatist version of Grounded Theory aimed at building a middle-range theory—may advance the current state of research. Georg Simmel’s concept of money as an “absolute means” is introduced as a key element of the theoretical framework. At the same time, it is shown that Simmel’s conceptualization can be improved by focusing on different social contexts, actions, and conditions of action as elements of a more elaborated theory of the tension between money and values.