Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Karl Emil Maximilian "Max" Weber (21 April 1864 - 14 June 1920) was a German sociologist and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research and the discipline of sociology itself. A key proponent of methodological antipositivism, which presents sociology as a non-empiricist field which must study social action through interpretive means based upon understanding the meaning and purpose that individuals attach to their own actions, Weber is often cited, with Émile Durkheim and Karl Marx, as one of the three principal architects of modern social science. Weber was also highly influential with his thesis in economic sociology, elaborated in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, that ascetic Protestantism was one of the major "elective affinities" associated with the rise of capitalism, bureaucracy and the rational-legal nation-state in the Western world. Against Marx's "historical materialism," Weber emphasised the importance, for understanding the development of capitalism, of cultural influences embedded in religion. The Protestant Ethic formed the earliest part in Weber's broader investigation into the sociology of religion. Begun as a series of essays, the original German text was composed in 1904.It is considered a founding text in economic sociology and sociology in general.
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- The most plausible overarching factor is being flooded with so much information that one is perennially stuck in triage mode. And in triage mode, you need quick decision making, which leads to adopting black and white thinking.
Another reinforcing factor is the zeitgeist that fetishizes attitudes like “getting things done” and “velocity of decision making” — where you’re essentially deliberately trying to place yourself in triage mode. Black and white thinking enables one to proceed quickly because there are no grey areas where I’ve needs to stop and think; greyness/uncertainty is seen as a cognitive tax.
The common theme underlying all these is a perceived scarcity of time (busyness). For those not used to thinking, it’s easier to be lost in action rather than lost in thought. Time spent thinking is consciously perceived (therefore conscious of wasting) compared to time spent acting.
It is interesting to ponder whether this drive to busyness (note the similarity with business) stems from the “Protestant work ethic”, but I’m out of my depth and I don’t have a definite answer ;-) (refer Weber’s classic “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”)
- I love everything about this:
The accent, the humor, the content, the man, his life and his books.
I never quite understood why so much Americans are out there just "to make a lot of money".
Lot of money, but realistically probably not enough to cover their uncovered healthcare costs once their health get worse.
But even in the best case, you earned a lot of money, you die rich, and that was it?
Recognizing capitalism as a fact is one thing (that I do myself), worshipping it like Ayn Rand belongs to the dullest ideologies ever invented. Capitalism does not care that you are worshipping it damnit!
Then I have read Max Weber and understood it all:
"The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit Of Capitalism"
Oh yes, that makes a lot of sense. It's not just capitalism, there is deeper meaning behind it and it comes from religion.
By contrast, I was raised as a Catholic - I'm not an Catholic today, but that's was my education was - so I learned from an early age that talking about money all the time is not what good people do.
- The word "inevitable" always makes me uneasy. I think it usually embodies an actual observation, combined with a certain agenda and/or a lack of imagination. That technological progress is inevitable is one thing; that it benefits mostly a certain class of people is another.
On a more philosophical level, I am not at all certain that efficiency should be society's goal[1], but I think that at least for the foreseeable future, fighting such unquestioned axioms is an uphill battle...
[1]: It's fascinating how long it took in the early modern period to convince society that efficiency is a desirable goal at all; see Max Weber's classic 1905 book, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
- I plan to go to grad school in history of technology, and spent senior year studying the history of technology at MIT, which has one of the best such programs around. Of my library, designed in preparation for quals one day, these are the best books fitting your description. These are all _broad_ histories of technology, more on the order of the Industrial Revolution than on modern technology. Amazon has good summaries of all of these.
The Unbound Prometheus --- a history of eastern europe technology and its social impacts.
From The American System to Mass Production --- Hounshell, a history of the development of the assembly line, and in particular the forerunners to Ford's mythologized mass production line (which, in many elements, surpassed it, and demonstrate that it was not particularly unique except in marketing)
America By Design --- Noble is a very circumspect, controversial historian of technology.
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism --- classic on the controversial idea that protestantism was responsible for capitalism and the resulting technology
Does Technology Drive History -- collection of essays by the founders of the field of science, technology, and society.
Civilizing the Machine --- technology's interaction with American values and how those developed concurrently.
Major Problems in the History of American Technology --- a collection of original documents and essays interpreting them in a historical basis, ed. by a founder of the field.
The Tentacles of Progress --- how technology lends itself to imperialism, and furthers exploitation, even when other nations fund the development of infrastructure in developing nations.
The Machine in the Garden --- possibly the single most important book on this list, the one that turned my life upside down and which I think about most regularly. It posits that America's idyll of a tech-free natural scene is actually a balance of technology and nature, and is a artificial nature propped up by machine, and demonstrates this history of this tension in American life from Shakespeare to Jefferson to Thoreau to the modern day. It completely turned my conception of the perfect life upsidedown.
Digital Apollo --- a history of the computing history of the Apollo program, especially the tensions in the software development sides between good management and perfect programs.
Science and Corporate Strategy, DuPont R&D 1902-1982 --- if you're interested in the development of big chem, or in the history of companies having R&D departments, this is the book for you. The DuPonts were very well-educated, many being MIT alums, and the chemical company they built was innovative in many different ways --- this book is a interesting discussion of the society and the technological pressures that drove and still drive innovation.
- That is a rough approximation of Max Weber's theory from The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, which is an amazing and surprisingly readable little book.
- whenever people complain about someone being "merely happy with getting something to work and get it out the door before clocking out" i wonder to myself if i'm dealing with someone that has The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism on their nightstand, or has never read Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, or simply does not understand the significance of these two essays.
like ... you expect people to actually be committed to "the value of a hard day's work" for its own sake? when owners aren't committed to value of a hard day's worker? and you think that your position is the respectable/wise one? lol
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