Max Weber'sThe Protestant Ethic And The Spirit Of Capitalism

America is a capitalist society, which according to Max Weber, would not have come into existence without the Protestant reformation (Kosmin 20). Weber argues that the driving force behind capitalism is not greed, but rather, the dedication and commitment to work, which is a strong Protestant value (Kosmin 20). Much of America was colonized and established by English

Weber presented the idea of investing the money in an effort to promote the growth of capitalism. As a result; the Protestant ethic guided its followers to work, develop business, engage in commerce and ultimately accumulate wealth for investment. The Protestant ethic was therefore the driving force behind the mass action that led to the development of capitalism (the protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism, 2016).

Weber argues that religious beliefs contributed to major social change- specifically the emergence of modern capitalism in Northern Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. Modern capitalism differs from capitalism as it is based on systematic, efficient and a rational pursuit of profit and profit for its own sake rather than consumption. Weber calls this the spirit of capitalism.

It is important to understand that Weber believed capitalism was fuelled by ideas, such as Protestantism, specifically Calvinism. His belief was that Protestants were very different to Catholics, spending more time focusing on their community rather than purely focusing on their own individual families. They worked towards a common goal, to ensure they worked to their full potential. Weber claimed that Protestants experienced feelings of guilt and directed these negative emotions into their work which Weber called “The Protestant Work

As seen throughout the semester, the debates surrounding capitalism and its role in society are extensive and transcends generations. By virtue of the nature of debates, two broad positions on capitalism evolved in North American Protestantism – one position defends capitalism while the other protests capitalism. The defense of capitalism developed in the 19th century. Being one of the many authors to do so, Charles Sellers attributes the development of capitalism to the Market and Industrial Revolution (Sellers, 21). Consequently, the Second Great Awakening increased religious awareness and significance in the daily lives of Americans (Sellers, 202). Sellers argues it was only through religion that Americans could cope with the stresses of

In an era consisting of big industrialist, such as Andrew Carnegie, there were many differences of opinions on the execution of capitalism between these industrialists and their workers. Andrew Carnegie expressed his ideas and views in article, “The Gospel of Wealth,” in which he outlines the duties of industrialist to better the life of their workers and community. On the other hand, a working man wrote “A Work Mans Prayer,” a sarcastic response to Andrew Carnegies “The Gospel of Wealth,” clearly against what Andrew Carnegie believes and claims. These differences can be

So we can understand this we have to go back in history, we need to look for the eternal relationship between capitalism and religion. There are assumption that capitalist blossomed around the same time as enlightenment of the eighteenth century. In fact, the church of the middle ages was the main source for the first sign of capitalism. The church was the first to set the rule of law, a bureaucracy system and many more concepts that our modern society is following today. The church owned nearly a third of all land in Europe, so the church had to create a strong system to manage all of these holdings. These strong systems helped in achieving great result as the technological discoveries. Therefor, the growth of capitalism was a source of the improvement in our society today. But not a lot people like to be ruled by the church and because if something goes beyond the person mean it will just create chaos and interruption. Thus, all of this created segregation in classes, and definition of certain classes no longer fit. Therefor the first settlers ran away from all these rules and seek refuge in the new land. They were looking for a new meaning of life, beyond what church has instructed. Even after establishing a new society in the new land, the American still struggled and had conflict over class

The certain morality of the lawful pursuit of wealth gives businessmen both a clear conscience and the ability to employ motivated workers who themselves constantly labor for the glory of God. The businessmen’s conscience is further cleared by the thought that the unequal distribution of goods is part of God’s plan – it is God’s secret choice to bestow grace as he wishes. The workers “calling”, in contrast, is to labor regardless of the wage, striving to glorify God and secure status as the elect. The ascetic lifestyle of a poor worker is also glorified, as the worker lives as the apostles once did. The attitudes of both the businessmen and the worker in the modern economic relationship naturally flow from ascetic Protestantism.

Many argue that this gave rise to capitalism because of the emphasis on the individual. Because of one's own freedom to interpret the Scripture for themselves, many believe this freedom extended to the workplaces of the 17th and 18th centuries. Men and women were free to go into their own enterprise and sell what they saw fit, without much government or hierarchical "red tape" ("The Protestant Ethic, the Spirit of Capitalism, and Perceptions of

Europe’s shift from Roman Catholicism to Protestantism facilitated the creation of hyper-rationalism. Through the practice of Protestantism, Max Weber conjectures that citizens were encouraged to show their faith in God through hard work and perpetual reinvestment in their business(Weber, 377). Through the accumulation of capital, business owners were supposed to increase their capacity production to greater benefit society. Over the centuries this idea manifested itself into hyper-rationalism where everyone from business owners to members of the bureaucracy made their decisions in increasingly rational yet myopic ways. They decision making became increasingly precise and qualitative, relied on long term cost benefit analysis, and lost sight of the original intent of the businesses and government and bureaucracy. The hyper-rationalization of the world prompted the shift from Mercantilism to Capitalism.

Capitalism started up as a system of investing and sharing money in order to increase the value of resources in the future. Capitalism was just an economic system, but then soon turned into a complex system of ethical practices. Harari defines capitalism as, “a set of teachings about how people should behave, educate their children and even think” (Harari 314). This economic system evolved along with the people that were endorsing it. Capitalism enables the rich to get richer, while the poor continue to get poorer. There are many benefits to capitalism, but there are downfalls as well, and these downfalls tend to be masked because of the rapid speed capitalists grow at. Harari first presents a definition for capitalism, and soon goes into great detail on why capitalism, while fast paced and unforgiving, is able to stand unwavered while other productions fail.

In chapter three Weber presents the final drawback between the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. As previously mentioned, Weber also introduced the idea of a "calling" to worldly pursuits. As he describes in this chapter, Lutheranism has a divinely sanctioned place in the world, but for the first time the question of how well one performed and their role became significant. Conversely, Weber does not consider that belief in a calling is adequate to explain the spirit of capitalism. With this in mind, a calling can adhere to traditionalism since it implies that an individual should assume their position in society without further motiviation to become more. Catholicism after all was the basis for the traditional worldview. As an

One expects Weber to Capitalism is a result of Protestantism or to be more specific, Calvinism. Calvinism believes God has granted few with salvation whereas others have to go through damnation. This virtue isn't dependent on their good or bad actions/ deeds but because God wanted it in a certain way. This belief made believers of Calvinism worried about their salvation and made them invest more efforts into economic success. This, in turn, made them believe that they were the chosen favourites of God. Furthermore, the profits made by Calvanists were re-invested into the business for further profits rather than self-indulgence. Hence, the concept of "Protestant ethic" came into place which generally refers to desire of having enormous economic success and will of working hard. This concept of "work ethic"

“The weber thesis” is the argument that turned Marx on his head: Instead of capitalism causing religion, religion actually caused capitalism” as stated in Collins (pg. 47). Weber goes on to stating as the Catholic Church was broke down during the 1517 by Martin Luther, he abolished the monasteries, the priests could get married but also the Bible could get translated from Latin to German so the people could read it for themselves. This meant that the priests were just like ordinary people and people could find their own way to embed their beliefs of God within their own lives. Weber then established religion was having a major effect in producing modern capitalism. Max Weber and Karl Marx are established as the two well-known theorists of the 19th Century. Many argue that there are various comparisons between these sociologist 's theories, however although Marx and Weber both examined similar ideas, they noticeably came to two drastically different conclusions. This essay will go on to critically analyse what the role of religion was in the rise of capitalism and discuss how Weber’s work was criticised by numerous sociologists e.g. Marxism and Durkheim.

For Weber, the idea of rationalism rational thought based on societal efficiency and productivity, runs through his works particularly The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. In this seminal work, Weber argues that the idea of Protestantism contributes to history and economics in that piety and the chance for a better life after death cause humans to strive for economic gain in certain ways, whereas that is not always using work as an expression of self - it is work, as Marx might say, for the ends justifying the means, rather than the means justifying what work is being done. Authority, then, rather than being solely economic, does have at its