Max Weber's main thesis in "Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism
" (chapter 5 of "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism") is that the meaning imposed my people and cultures on their
beliefs and values has great influence on the manner in which they perceive
their reality and act within it. Weber demonstrates his thesis on the case of
the ascetic Protestants, especially Calvinistic ones, in order to show how
their behavior is the result of a religious ideology which they took upon
themselves and which directed they're daily activities.
Max Weber does not deny Marx's material explanations of history, but he does
feel that they are a bit one-sided and one-dimensional. Weber would like to add
that beyond means and relations of production and so forth there are cultural
and religious factors which hold great weight in shaping social life.
According to Weber, Calvinistic principles emphasized work as an ascetic
mean to avoid temptation and as the purpose of human existence. Work was for
them a moral issue, a divine decree which is imposed on all, rich and poor.
Accordingly, the division of labor was perceived as part of the divine program
on earth and therefore fulfilling one's part in it was doing god's biding.
According to the Protestant ethic you were supposed to play your assigned role
in life in order to do your part for the common good. This means two things
that are very important for capitalism: 1. There more important and significant
your job is the more god likes you. 2. The better you are at your job the
better you are as a person. Both these implications can be measure in financial
terms: if you have money – it means that you are a good person.
Profit and wealth are thus perceived by the Protestant ethic as a sign
of god's grace. Prosperity is an indication that you are on god's good side and
that you will be redeemed in the afterlife. Furthermore, wealth is good and
justified if it is used for generating more wealth, and not for idle hedonistic
enjoyments. This is of course also very important for capitalism, as Weber
notes.
According to Weber the ascetic ideology denounces luxury and ostentatious
wealth and opposes unfairness and greed. This approach relates negatively to
both feudal nobility and beggars which live at the expense of others. The ascetic
ideology according to Weber is favorable towards the hard working, law abiding
rational bourgeois that accumulate wealth through diligences and frugality. Leisure
is only tolerable in the eyes of the ascetic ethic, and it is allowed only as
long as it does not lead to indulgence or empty enjoyment.
For Weber, capitalism is the ascetic spirit stripped from its religious
origins. The protestant decree of behaving according to one's business interests
as a form of reverence aided in legitimizing capitalistic inequality. The bourgeois
rich can now enjoy both worlds: material gains and moral virtue.