Protestant Ethics and the spirit of capitalism , work of max Weber, is one of works founders of modern sociology. It appeared, for the first time, in the form of two studies published, in 1904 and 1905, in the review which max Weber with Werner Sombart and Edgar Jaffé codirigeait, the Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik . Max Weber will give of it one second revised edition, marked by a number important of additions, in 1920, by publishing it at the head sound Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Religionssoziologie . In this work, Weber explains the formidable development of capitalism starting from the middle of the 18th century, by the parallel development of the ethos Protestant, and more particularly puritan. Indeed, Weber explains us here why, the Reform made it possible its followers to make jump the taboo of work (regarded as degrading among catholics), by inviting the believers to make penitence in front of God by work and by accumulating the richnesses, without however being able to enjoy it. Thus, in Northern Europe, an increasing accumulation of the richnesses and a search for richnesses quite as increasing, supported the rise of the capitalist spirit.

Criticisms

• Critical: the principal criticism brought on the work of Weber comes from French Fernand Braudel. The historian says to us that, according to him, the spirit of capitalism is not at all a creation of the protesting ethos. For him, this spirit was already present at the Renaissance, even with the Moyen-âge, in the Mediterranean basin of Europe (in the catholic Italian big cities of the time more precisely). If capitalism formidably developed in the middle of Northern Europe at the 18th century, it is because this spirit moved of Italy towards these countries with the favor of the merchants, thus opening at a new market, and then making it possible capitalism to take its real rise.

• In much of works, one explains the development of capitalism for reasons naturalists. The most known talk is that of Miroshima. In its works, Miroshima explains us the development of capitalism in Japan under the Meiji era thanks to the values confucéennes.

• In The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit off Capitalism , the catholic economist Michael Novak makes the point that the social Doctrine of the Church is not directly opposed to capitalism as such but only to the abuses of power and of interest related to the richness. He points out the big role played by the school of Salamanque and by economists like Frederic Bastiat, Heinrich Pesch, Pierre-Guillaume-Frederic Play, Victor Brants, Charles Périn and Albert de Mun. Moreover, the Catholic church also caused the development of the Coopératives, the Christian Syndicalisme and the Distributivisme. The documents Rerum Novarum and Quadragesimo Anno had a major influence on the political economy.

See too

Related articles

• Emergence of capitalism according to max Weber (the detailed version)
• max Weber: Capitalism (the synthetic version)

External bonds

• the book can be downloaded on the site: http://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/Weber/ethique_protestante/Ethique.html
• German Text