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Association of protestant ethic and spirit of capitalism by marx weber
Association of protestant ethic and spirit of capitalism by marx weber
Weber's view on capitalism
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Max Weber – Exam 3
The German Sociologist Max Weber was considered one of the world’s greatest sociologist. In his work “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”, Max Weber declared that religion was one of the agents of social change. In his piece he discusses some of the norms and ideas pertaining to Protestantism, and Calvinism that later develop the meaning of “the spirit of capitalism”. In “The Protestant Ethic …”, Weber focused on how the “calling” combined with ascetic restrictions led to the development of capitalism.
To begin, Max Weber determines that there are three fundamental components to the “Spirit of Protestantism”. The first one is predestination, or the belief that god had already chosen who was damned and who would be saved (Appelrouth and Edles 2016). He continues, that each person had (or was assigned) a
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People became capitalists not as a result of their religion, but due to their religious ideas, and norms. People began to validate themselves for their hard work, and focused on rationalization of the world (Weber in Appelrouth and Edles 2016). With the rationalization of life, individuals let go of their traditional spiritual drive. Everything was highly calculated and controlled, there was an elimination of spontaneity, creativity, and autonomy. People began to validate themselves for their success, and no longer requiring God’s approval. People became mesmerized with commodity fetishism, and they acquired things for mere comfort, and pleasure. According to Weber, we got trapped in an “iron cage” instead of wearing a disposable “saint-like cloak” because we have become so dependent on our commodities, that they run our lives. So, although these modified ideas are unhealthy for our spiritual needs, they are beneficial to modern capitalism (Weber, in Appelrouth and Edles:
He discusses the Protestant work ethic primarily examining Richard Baxter a Presbyterian and Methodists. There is a much more focus on wealth because a worldly self discipline is stressed as the morally and right way to live. You not only work hard in your calling but you are constantly productive and are mentally and physically rational. If one were lazy and/or waste their time by indulging themselves in joyful activities it is seen as sinful. Wealth itself is not a sin as long as it is connected to ones work only when it is used irrationally. Therefore, the spirit of capitalism takes form because rather than spending people are invesing. Consequently, the protestant work ethic eventually contradicts itself by separating from religion and increases the temptations that are supposed to be avoided. As capital continuously increases greed, pride, selfishness, sloth, and excessive wasteful spending increases (Barnes 2015). Resulting in western rational capitalism. In today 's society people continue to work hard in order to be successful and spend money on what they desire, as well as viewing those who are of lower class and receiving welfare as lazy and useless fueling those who are also poor to work harder in order to reach success and be viewed
people. Work was done not for one’s own personal gain, but for the sake of god. Weber found that in areas where Calvinism was the highest is where capitalism rose first, and no other religion resulted in the rise of capitalism.
Max Weber’s outlines his views on religion and capitalism in his book, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Weber held the important theory that an individual’s views are significant in promoting social change, not material things as believed by former theorists. In his work, Weber compares two waves of “the calling” as preached by different Protestant leaders and describes the teaching and spread of ascetic beliefs among followers. This paper considers the context of the calling, explores the outward signs of grace which helped develop capitalism and, lastly, how capitalism, through rationalization, transformed Calvinist ideals for its advancement. According to Weber’s findings, individualistic views arose through Protestant beliefs.
In this paper, I will examine some of the factors contributing to the importance and prevalence of religion and religious practice in some societies and how the concept of religion and religious practice has had an impact on the development of capitalism, particularly in western societies. Looking at the works of Emile Durkheim and Max Weber and their studies of religion and other writings drawing upon the ideologies of Durkheim and Weber, I will attempt to explain and extrapolate some of the reasons for the continuing nature of religion in many societies, in one form or another. While both Durkheim and Weber spent a great deal of time studying religion in society, the views and ideas they developed regarding religion were developed and obtained through very different approaches to their study of religion. However, both Durkheim and Weber, made remarkable observations about religion, religious practice and the overall impact it has on society.
In his writings, Max Weber brought into focus the increasing tension between modern salvation religions and secular spheres ranging from the economic and political to the esthetic. Weber argued that divergent perspectives on religious “brotherliness” bred a tension with autonomous secular spheres and also suggested compromise between spheres in an absolute sense would be impossible but was necessary and pervasive given the state of humanity in the modern world.
Accompanied with close practical connections with rationality, Rationalisation represents a process which the society happens to be rationalised (ibid: 36). For Weber, it typically represents the emergence of modern capitalism in the Occident. That is to say, striving for efficiency and calculability, instead of emotional or traditional motivation, has become routine of individuals only in modern industrial capitalist societies (Jones et al, 2011: 89). In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Weber, 2003), modern capitalism is viewed as the result of a rationalisation process. Weber pointed out that the goal of capitalism is always making profits as much as possible (Jones et al, 2011: 97). Weber also argues that rational capitalism is emerged from Puritan Protestantism, especially Calvinism (Hedoin, 2009: 177) with religious means. It is because of Calvinists’ attempt to maximize their productivity that capital is assembled. Furthermore, bureaucracy is viewed as the ultimate result of rationalisation (Ritzer, 1998: 42) because modern societies require systematic administrative organisations (Meyer, 2013:
Max Weber’s work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is arguably one of the most important works in all of sociology and social theory, both classical and modern. In the decades since its inception, this work has gone on to influence generations of social scientists with its analysis of the effect of Protestantism on the development of modern industrial capitalism. This work, examining such broad topics as religion, economics, and history, is not only an interesting and insightful look into the history of the development of capitalism, but a major work in laying a foundation for future works of social theory.
and political economist. Weber is known as a founder of sociology largely due to combining economic sociology with the sociology of religion. Which brings me to his book "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. In this essay I will be discussing some of Weber 's ideas and his main argument and show how I understand his theories. Then, I will choose one quote that I feel strongly about. Finally, I will discuss the strengths
Weber's Approach to Religion and Sociology Weber's general approach to sociology is known as <'verstehen'
The sociology of religion, a unique topic that ultimately still has room for growth. A topic so new that it cannot be dated before the nineteenth century. As it is still developing, observations of complication within this field has spurred fairly early and continuing today. Ultimately, The Sociology of Religion works to explain that all early sociologists whose efforts provided a base for the sociology of religion, either began doing empirical work or took their findings into the applied realm.
The goal of Weber’s work is to comprehend the origin of this spirit. And he eventually turns to Protestantism for a prospective explanation. Weber initially perceives a relationship between being Protestant and being involved in business. He expresses his idea to explore religion as a possible cause for the contemporary economic conditions. Weber highlights that his narrative is imperfect. He does not insist that Protestantism produced the capitalistic system. However, he means to say that it was one major contributing element. This is an important revelation because the majority of scientists and sociologists alike choose to ignore the possible contributing factors and roles that religion plays on the community and the
Max Weber (1864-1920), a prominent theorist of social science, had already witnessed both democracy and capitalism unfold and function in both Europe and the United States when he began writing at the turn of the 20th century. He followed in the footsteps of other social scientists and scholars such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Charles Darwin, and Emile Durkheim who had all produced literary works in the 19th century. In 1905, while writing The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and pondering the effects of a “modern market economy” on the future of democracy, Weber asked, “How are freedom and democracy in the long run at all possible under the domination of highly developed capitalism?” (Gerth and Mills 1958, 71). Weber was
Marshall, Gordon. In Search of the Spirit of Capitalism: An Essay on Max Weber's Protestant Ethic Thesis. New York: Columbia UP, 1982.
Capitalism dominates the world today. Known as a system to create wealth, capitalism’s main purpose is to increase profits through land, labor and free market. It is a replacement of feudalism and slavery. It promises to provide equality and increases living standards through equal exchanges, technological innovations and mass productions. However, taking a look at the global economy today, one can clearly see the disparity between developed and developing countries, and the persistence of poverty throughout the world despite the existence of abundant wealth. This modern issue was predicted and explained a hundred and fifty years ago in Karl Marx’s Capital.
According to Karl Marx (2002), religion manifests itself as any other social institution that greatly depends on other social circles of the society like economical and the material benefits. Therefore, religion is greatly intertwined with other social systems and economical factors governing the society. Marx’s analysis and critique of religion is the most famous and controversial subject in the world. From his functionalist point of view the set religious doctrines are mostly dependent on economics making the religious doctrines weak and almost groundless. Marx views religion as a way of creating excuses and providing reasons to escape from our problems, seeking for divine intervention in the hope that it will make the world a better place. People will momentarily run away from their problems when they arise and seek for higher powers to calm them down. Marx therefore did not associate himself with religion as much as he lived without offending people.