The Creation of the Sacred Text: Talcott Parsons Translates The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Scaff
Keyword(s):  
Protestant Ethic ◽  
Sacred Text ◽  
Talcott Parsons ◽  
Spirit Of Capitalism ◽  
The Creation

The Creation of the Sacred Text

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence A. Scaff
Keyword(s):  
Protestant Ethic ◽  
Sacred Text ◽  
Talcott Parsons ◽  
Spirit Of Capitalism ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The University ◽  
Capitalist Spirit

This chapter discusses the politics and sociology underlying the translation of Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the “Spirit” of Capitalism (PESC). Published in 1930 with Talcott Parsons as the translator, PESC was described as sociology's “most famous” work. The story of the first translation and publication of PESC is a complicated episode as far as Weber translations are concerned. The chapter first traces the origins of Parsons's effort to translate Weber's work to the time he was a student at the University of Heidelberg in the 1920s before discussing the questions raised for the translation, including publication rights. It shows that Parsons's reading captured accurately the overarching terminology of rationalism, rationality, and rationalization that was central to Weber's account of asceticism and the capitalist “spirit.”

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.

The Invention of the Theory

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence A. Scaff
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Historical Inquiry ◽  
Talcott Parsons ◽  
Substantial Body ◽  
Political Tradition ◽  
Action Awareness ◽  
Deep Appreciation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Spirit Of Capitalism

This chapter examines how Max Weber's work has been recast as canonical for the social sciences and central to its current agendas. It first considers the substantial body of translations that became the basis for the postwar permeation of Weber's work into the social sciences, and especially into the subfield specializations of sociology, including Talcott Parsons' The Protestant Ethic and the “Spirit” of Capitalism, before discussing the role played by the interwar émigrés in the struggle over the mastery of Weber. It then explains how Weber achieved an intellectual synthesis through a combination of structural and institutional analysis, notions of rationality, propositions about social action, awareness of cultural particularities, and a deep appreciation for historical inquiry and evidence. It also analyzes the expansion of the horizon for Weber's ideas beyond the boundaries of sociology to the Western philosophical and political tradition.

Don’t Be Evil

Google Me ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Cassin
Keyword(s):  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Protestant Ethic ◽  
Political Stance ◽  
Spirit Of Capitalism

This chapter looks closely at Google’s ethical claims, with reference to Leibniz (“the best of all possible worlds”), Spinoza (users as “monads”), and Weber (his Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism). Google is seen, not surprisingly, as fundamentally undemocratic and unethical, most particularly through the algorithm that drives it AdWords and the compromised political stance of its relation to China.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document