Weber 2

Spirit of capitalism

• characterized by the idea that the individuals has a duty to pursue the acquisition of money as an end in itself 

  • not as a means to enjoy life

• benjamin franklin

Historical individual

• complex elements from historical reality that is united into a conceptual whole

• Used to describe the spirit of capitalism

  • must be gradually put together from individual parts found in history

Ethos

• specific set of ethics or guiding beliefs for a person or group

• Weber’s context: 

  • the peculiar ethic of making money as a moral duty (central feature of the spirit of capitalism 

Eudaimonistic

• pursuit of happiness

• spirit of capitalism is devoid of this

Hedonistic

• pursuit of pleasure

• spirit of capitalism is devoid of this

Calling

• idea fundamental to the spirit of modern capitalism

• individual feels an obligation or duty toward their professional work

• proficiency and success is expressed through the legal earning of money

worldly asceticism

• the practice of asceticism in the daily life rather than in monastic seclusion

• weber argues protestantism asceticism introduced this → crucial world in building the rational economic order of capitalism  

Asceticism

Self denial for religious purpose

Iron cage

• metaphor for the modern economic order

• Originally: light cloak of religious and ascetic duty

• now: a rigid and inescapable system of economic and technical conditions that determines the lives of individuals

  • stripped off its original meaning