Max Weber, the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

1985 ◽  
pp. 103-124
Author(s):  
R. J. Holton
Keyword(s):  
Max Weber ◽  
Protestant Ethic ◽  
Spirit Of Capitalism

scholarly journals Religion as a factor of political culture and economic development

2005 ◽  
pp. 145-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irena Ristic
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
The Other ◽  
Protestant Ethic ◽  
Philosophical Basis ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Social And Economic Development ◽  
Spirit Of Capitalism

In his essay ?The Protestant Ethic? Max Weber explains the specific economic development and the foundation of capitalism in Western Europe due to the appearance of protestant sects and the ?spirit of capitalism?. By doing so, Weber assigns religion a significant place among the factors of social and economic development. Taking Weber?s theory and argumentation as a starting point, this article drafts a thesis on ?orthodox ethic? and determines its role in the development of the ?spirit of capitalism? in orthodox countries. For that purpose this article compares political-historical circumstances on the territory of the Western and Eastern Church on one, and pictures the theological-philosophical basis of both Protestantism and Orthodoxy on the other side.

Translations of Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in China

2020 ◽  
pp. 089692052092482
Author(s):  
Senlin Yu ◽  
Yujing Wang
Keyword(s):  
Max Weber ◽  
Protestant Ethic ◽  
Spirit Of Capitalism

From 1968 to 2018, there are 21 Chinese versions of Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism ( PESC) published in China. This essay makes a profile of the Chinese translations of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, analyzes the reasons for the retranslations, and summarizes the major problems in these translations. The authors argue that, although there are some problems in the existing Chinese versions, the Chinese translations of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism play important roles in the reception and studies of Max Weber in China, and the deepening of Max Weber studies in return inspires more and better Chinese versions of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. The Chinese translations contribute not only to the study of Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, but also to the spread of Max Weber’s thoughts in China.

Max Weber: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

1931 ◽  
Vol 41 (161) ◽  
pp. 133
Author(s):  
A. L. Rowse ◽  
Talcott Parsons ◽  
R. H. Tawney
Keyword(s):  
Max Weber ◽  
Protestant Ethic ◽  
Spirit Of Capitalism

Capitalism as Religion: Walter Benjamin and Max Weber

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Löwy
Keyword(s):  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Protestant Ethic ◽  
Erich Fromm ◽  
Ernst Bloch ◽  
Spirit Of Capitalism ◽  
Libertarian Socialism

AbstractBenjamin's fragment 'Capitalism as Religion', written in 1921, was only published several decades after his death. Its aim is to show that capitalism is a cultic religion, without mercy or truce, leading humanity to the 'house of despair'. It is an astonishing document, directly based on Max Weber's Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, but – in ways akin to Ernst Bloch or Erich Fromm – transforming Weber's 'value-free' analysis into a ferocious anticapitalist argument, probably inspired by Gustav Landauer's romantic and libertarian socialism. This article analyses Benjamin's fragment and explores its relationship to Weber's thesis, as well as to the tradition of romantic anticapitalism.

Gandhi's Disciple in the West

Worldview ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 28-34
Author(s):  
James Young ◽  
Marjorie Hope
Keyword(s):  
Max Weber ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Protestant Ethic ◽  
The West ◽  
The Future ◽  
Last Stage ◽  
Spirit Of Capitalism ◽  
To Come

In the closing pages of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904) Max Weber mused on the shape of things to come: No one knows who wilt live in this cage in the future, or whether at the end of this tremendous development entirely new prophets will arise, or there will be a great rebirth of old ideas and ideals, or if neither, mechanized petrification, embellished with a sort of self-importance. For of the last stage of this cultural development, it might be said: “Specialists without heart; this nullity imagines that it has attained a level of civilization never before achieved.”

Do Today's Sociologists Really Appreciate Weber's Essay The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism?

2006 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Protestant Ethic ◽  
Apparent Contradiction ◽  
High Regard ◽  
Spirit Of Capitalism ◽  
Iconic Status

It is noted that Max Weber is held in very high regard by the majority of contemporary sociologists, while his essay, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, is generally considered his most important as well as his most famous work. However attention is drawn to the marked contradiction between the practice of today's sociologists in routinely heaping praise on this essay and the fact that their own self-confessed theoretical statements constitute a direct rejection of Weber's approach. This contradiction is illustrated by demonstrating that although The Protestant Ethic is essentially an examination of the role of motives in human action the concept of motive is effectively missing from contemporary sociology. A possible explanation for this apparent contradiction is then considered in the form of the claim that those theoretical positions favoured by contemporary sociologists could be considered as ‘developed out of’ or ‘descended from’ Weber's theory of ‘motivational understanding'. This however is shown to be an untenable claim, given that the vocabulary of motives perspective, the treatment of motives as reasons, and rational choice theory all represent straightforward rejections of Weber's position. Consequently it is concluded that there remains an unresolved and largely unrecognised contradiction between the iconic status accorded to Weber's essay by contemporary sociologists and their own very obvious rejection of his theoretical approach.

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