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.
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.
Religion as a factor of political culture and economic development