Max Weber | Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism

Excerpt from this article: "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism"

By Max Weber

Translators: Yu Xiao, Chen Weigang, etc

A man who has grown up in modern European civilization, when studying any question of world history, cannot help but ask himself: what are the synthesizing effects of the cultural phenomena that have manifested themselves in and only in civilization – which phenomena (as we often like to think) exist in a series of developments of universal significance and universal value,—— to boil down to?

It is only in Spain that science is at a stage of development where it is now universally recognized as legitimate and valid. Empirical knowledge, contemplation of the universe and the questions of life, and unfathomable philosophical and theological holes are outside the scope of science (although the full development of a systematic theology must ultimately be attributed to Christianity influenced by Greek culture, since there is only a systematic theology in Islam and several Hindu sects). Simply put, highly accurate knowledge and observations exist elsewhere, especially in India, China, Babylon, and Egypt; However, in Egypt and elsewhere, astronomy lacks the mathematical foundation that the ancient Greeks first acquired (which of course makes the development of astronomy in these places all the more impressive); Indian geometry has no proof of reasoning, which is another product of Greek ingenuity and the mother of mechanics and physics; India's natural sciences, though very developed in observation, lacked experimental methods, which, if left aside from their ancient beginnings, were essentially a product of the Renaissance, like modern laboratories; Thus medicine (especially in India), although highly developed in terms of empirical technology, has no foundation in biology, especially biochemistry. A rational chemistry has been absent in any other cultural region except in Spain.

In China, there is a highly developed historiography, but there has never been a Thucydides method; In India, of course, there is a precursor to the Franchiavelli, but all Indian political thought lacks a systematic approach comparable to Aristotle's method, and does not possess rational concepts,—— neither in all the prophecies of India (Mimanchas), nor in the large-scale codification that is most prominent in the Near East, or in the laws of India and other countries. This systematic and rigorous form is indispensable for such a rational jurisprudence as the Law of Romania and the laws of the parties affected by it. A systematic structure like canon law has only been heard of.

The same is true for the arts. Other ethnic groups may have a sharper sense of music than we are, at least no weaker than us. Polyphony of all kinds has always existed all over the world: ensembles of various instruments and multi-voice choruses have always existed everywhere else; All those rational intervals that we have have long known and calculated; However, rational harmonious music (whether polyphonic or harmonies) is composed of full intervals based on three third-degree superimposed third chords; our chromatic and isophonic (not in the sense of space, but in the sense of harmony since the Renaissance), our orchestra and wind ensemble organization with string quartets at its core, our bass accompaniment, our notation system (which makes it possible to compose and perform modern musical works, and thus preserves them), our sonatas, symphonies, operas, and, finally, our basic instruments such as the piano, piano, violin, etc., which are the means of expression of all this; - All this has only been said in Fang, although the title music, the tonal poem, the diaphonic and semitonic variations, have long existed in different musical traditions as a means of expression.

In architecture, pointed arches have been used as a decorative means elsewhere, both in ancient times and in Asia. But the rational use of the Gothic vault as a means of dispersing pressure and covering all structural spaces, and prominently as a principle for constructing majestic buildings, as a basis for extending to sculptures and paintings such as those made by our medieval sword, is absent nowhere else. The technical basis of our architecture really comes from the East. But the East did not solve the problem of domes, and lacked the type of rationalization that was classic to all art (in painting, the rational use of line and spatial perspective) – something the Renaissance had created for us.

Printing has existed in China since ancient times, but the kind of printing that is deliberately used and only possible through printing, and the most important newspapers and periodicals, have only appeared in the West. There have always been all possible types of higher education institutions (in China and the Islamic world), some of which are even superficially similar to our universities or at least to our colleges. But a rational and systematic pursuit of specialized science, carried out by trained professionals, in the sense that it has reached the dominant position in our culture today, exists only in the West.

Crucially, so are well-trained officials, who are the backbone of modern state and economic life in the West. This type of official composition was only conceived before, but it is far from giving it the importance it has for the social order today. Of course, officials, even professional officials, are a long-standing element in most different societies. But no country or era has produced the experience of the modern West: its full existence, the political, technical and economic conditions in which it lives, depend entirely on an organization of specially trained officials.

The most important functions of everyday life in society have come to be exercised technically, commercially, first and foremost in the hands of legally trained government administrators. The political and social groups of the feudal class have always had the same organization. However, even a feudal state like rex et regnum in the Western sense! Only our culture knows what's going on. Parliaments composed of regularly elected representatives, and ministers and accountable Governments of popular and political leaders are all the more unique to us, although governments in the sense of organizations that exert influence and control political power have undoubtedly existed around the world for a long time.

In fact, if the state itself refers to a political association with a rational written constitution and rationally made laws, governed by trained administrators according to rational rules or laws, then the state with these basic characteristics is only found in the West, although there are other ways in which it is constituted.

The same is true of capitalism, the most decisive force in our modern life. The impulse to profit, the pursuit of the maximum possible monetary gain, has nothing to do with capitalism in itself. Such impulses exist and always exist in all people, whether they are waiters, coachmen, artists, prostitutes, golden officials, soldiers, nobles, crusader knights, gamblers or beggars. It can be said that all the countries of the world, all people in all times, all conditions, whether objective possibilities or not, will all have the same impulse.

An introductory course in cultural history should be taught that this crude view of capitalism must be completely abandoned. The insatiable greed for profit cannot be equated with capitalism at all, much less the spirit of capitalism. Rather, capitalism is more of a suppression of this irrational impulse, or at least a rational relief. Capitalism, however, means relying on continuous, rational capitalist enterprise to pursue profits, and they are constantly reproducing profits. For capitalism must be so: in a fully capitalist social order, any single capitalist enterprise that does not take advantage of opportunities for profit is a dead end.

This article is reprinted for Peking University Public Communication

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