Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism is arguably his most
important work. On the face of it The
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism deals with the connections between the protestant revolution and the
rise of capitalism, with Max Weber trying to account for the fact the Protestants
seem to do better in a capitalistic environment when compared with other
religions (especially Catholicism). However, the main point of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism is not only that
religious belief has to do with economic behavior, but also the Protestantism
and capitalism represent two faces of a modern phenomenon referred to by Weber
as rationalization (see a summary about rationality, rationalization and modernity by Max
Weber).
At the beginning of The Protestant Ethic
and the Spirit of Capitalism (chapter 1 titled
"religious affiliation and social stratification" (see link for detailed summary)
Weber points to the links between religious belief and economic behavior. He poses
the notion the protestant thinking can be associated with what he calls
"the spirit of capitalism" (chapter two of the book). What Protestantism
and capitalism have in common is the “willingness to engage in rational
conduct.” Protestant work ethic thought serves
capitalism in the conception of hard work and aestheticism as a moral duty. According
to Weber capitalism and Protestantism actually say the same thing: work hard, accumulate
capital, be rational.
In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism Weber shows how Calvinist views of salvation implicated changes
in practical conduct towards greater rationality and the demystification or disenchantment
of the world.
Another very
important aspect of Weber's The
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is his account of the interrelations between conceptions and ideas
(here, religious beliefs) as social aspects such as economic behavior and
social stratification. Unlike Marx who thought that the world of ideas in founded
on economic and material reality, Weber held and demonstrated that the relations
between the two are more complex and bidirectional.
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