Weber tried to use analytical statistics to establish the fact that there is a certain correlation between the interest and success rate of capitalism and the Protestant background. Weber pointed out: "In any country with mixed religious components, as long as we look at the statistical data of their occupations, we can find such a situation almost without exception: the industrial and commercial circles, capital possessors and senior skilled workers in modern enterprises, especially the managers who have received advanced technical training and business training, are mostly Protestants. The more capitalism is liberalized, the more obvious this situation is. " Weber cited many examples to analyze the reasons for this phenomenon, and pointed out that on the surface, it seems that Catholicism specializes in the afterlife, while Protestantism pays attention to the material enjoyment of the present, but at the same time it has amazing combination of penance and wealth, extreme piety and business skills. This combination makes people speculate that "in the so-called conflict between penance, asceticism and religious piety on the one hand and the acquisition of capitalism on the other hand, it will eventually show that the two sides actually have a very close relationship." Therefore, the question can only be: "The awakening of the spirit of hard struggle and positive enterprising spirit (or whatever it is called) is often attributed to Protestantism, and it can never be understood as the enjoyment of life fun like the popular view. If there is any internal connection between the old Protestant spirit and modern capitalist culture, we should not look for it in the so-called sensual pleasure with a little materialism or at least anti-asceticism, but in its pure religious character. " Weber quoted Benjamin Franklin, a statesman, scientist and writer during the American Revolutionary War, to analyze the spirit of capitalism. Weber believes that although it is hard to say that the capitalist spirit has been completely contained in the words he quoted from Benjamin Franklin, these words do preserve the capitalist spirit we are looking for with almost typical purity. This is "thinking that individuals have the responsibility to increase their own capital, and increasing capital is an end in itself." Violating its norms is considered to be forgetting responsibility, a strange ethics and a spiritual temperament. That is to say, Weber's so-called capitalist spirit means that individuals regard efforts to increase their own capital and activities for this as a conscious action, regard making money as an end in itself, as a professional responsibility, and as a manifestation of virtue and ability. Weber said: "A person's responsibility for obligations is the most representative thing in the social ethics of bourgeois culture. In a sense, it is the fundamental foundation of bourgeois culture." Max Weber
The ideal capitalism defined by Weber is strictly limited. It is characterized by reasonable calculation of revenue and expenditure and orderly arrangement of production and business activities, rather than obtaining original accumulation through violent means such as robbery and plunder. This economic behavior of modern rational capitalism is completely consistent with the orderly and systematic ascetic lifestyle of Protestants. The asceticism ethics of Protestantism in WTO provides a kind of psychological driving force and moral energy for capitalist entrepreneurs, thus becoming the spiritual driving force for the rise of modern rational capitalism and one of the important conditions for the emergence of modern capitalism. Rational capitalism and Protestant ethics only appear in western civilization, and, in Weber's view, almost all factors related to rational capitalism are unique to western civilization. From the democratic representative system that lasted from the ancient Greek era to the commercialization means such as stocks, checks and bonds that embody the soul of rationalization, all reflect the characteristics of rationalism. The common feature that distinguishes western civilization from other civilizations is rationalism. Its source can be traced back to the whole western civilization tradition. Different forms of civilization have their own unique spiritual core, in which religion has exerted great influence. The Protestant reform in western Europe was initially promoted by religion, but the secular abstinence spirit and reasonable ethical life shown by Protestant ethics inadvertently promoted the development of economic activities, and Protestant ethics gave the profit-seeking behavior in business a reasonable secular purpose. The ancient religious ethics of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism and other major religions without religious reform have seriously hindered the capitalist development of these ethnic groups.
The spirit of capitalism in editing this paragraph
In fact, it is essential for Max Weber to find the exact definition of capitalist spirit (even "capitalism") in the original text.
No Reading through the whole chapter, we can vaguely feel a tendency or a unique "spiritual" civilization: being good at career and making money is a virtue. This virtue is also associated with such a word "duty". We can find Weber's definition of "capitalism" in other texts: "In a production economy, if the needs of a group of people, no matter what nature, are met through enterprises, then it is capitalism. In short, rational capitalist enterprises are enterprises engaged in capital accounting, that is, productive enterprises that use modern accounting to prepare balance sheets and control production efficiency through calculation. Perhaps we cannot fully understand Weber's definition of capitalism. But there is no doubt that we can extract several rather general keywords: rationality, capitalist enterprises, capital accounting and calculation. It can be said that capitalism, as one of the results of western social changes, depends on a wider social culture, and social spirit is the rationalization of Weber's "overall attitude of individuals or collectives" or "attitude of social organizations or individuals". This rationalization belongs to one of the four ideal types of social action defined by Weber: "ethical rational behavior". This kind of social action can be defined according to the inherent conscious belief of action, so it is independent of any functional motivation and only obeys ethical, aesthetic and religious standards. I think this definition of ideal type is undoubtedly the most important key to understand Weber's religious society. Because people who belong to this type of action often assume that the action has unconditional and exclusive value when they engage in the action, and will not consider the consequences of the action and whether the conditions for completing the action are met. In daily life, their actions only serve their dignity, obligations, beauty, beliefs or beliefs about the importance of something, regardless of any consequences or conditions in the process of putting them into action. Although once capitalism matures and rationalization pervades the whole society, people will abandon God. As Weber worried at the end of Protestant Ethics: "When fulfilling one's obligations is no longer directly related to the highest value of spirit and culture, or on the other hand, the concept of obligation has been transformed into economic impulse. When you no longer feel it, in general, individuals will never try to find any reason to defend it. " In other words, when human behavior has changed from "value rational action" to "tool rational action", Weber said sadly: "No one knows who will live in an iron cage in the future. "This becomes another problem, not the content of this article.
Edit this paragraph of Protestant ethics
Luther's religious reform misunderstood the word "calling" in the Bible and objectively criticized the capitalist country of abstinence and asceticism in the United States.
The weakening of ethics affects the way and general direction of material and cultural development. "At the beginning of the next article, Weber quoted 1647' s Westminster creed, and by summing up Calvinism, he keenly observed Calvinism's emphasis on and promotion of fatalism. It can be seen: "For people during the Reformation ... he had to face an eternal fate that had already been decided for him alone, and no one could help him. "The direct consequence of this basic doctrine is to make believers understand that" the possibility of salvation through the church and sacraments is completely ruled out. " Weber believes that "it has reached its logical end here". In this way, devout believers move from a dark and silent church to a secular life, and from a view of abstinence that rejects secular dust to a view of abstinence in the world. Since God's salvation is not in the church, how can Christians show God's glory and show themselves as God's voters in the world? Some people say "good deeds", but in fact, "good deeds are not only essential, but also become a symbol of voters." However, "good deeds are not used to buy redemption, but a technical means to eliminate the fear of being sent to hell." "So, in addition to good? In the middle ages, in pursuit of redemption, Christians completely retired from the world, thinking that this was the only way to achieve redemption; After the religious reform, "secular ascetics" thought that "the world is their responsibility", so "for them, although it is absolutely forbidden to enjoy wealth, it has become the unshirkable responsibility of ascetics to devote themselves to economic activities, because economic activities not only faithfully meet the requirements of rational ethics, but also combine them with strict rationality. If the result is accompanied by profit, it is regarded as a symbol of God's blessing to believers, which also shows the way God accepts his economic life. Compared with the concept of abstinence outside the world, the concept of abstinence inside the world not only gives economic activities religious and ethical significance, but also rationalizes economic behavior/activities by giving them ethical significance. They "work hard according to God's call". In this way, we effortlessly associate capitalism with Protestantism: value conforms to rational action. Protestantism has contributed to the development of capitalism, especially in the stage of capital accumulation. We found that the author described the motive force of capitalism to us from the aspects of culture, spirit and religion. After discussing with my classmates, I found that Weber's works are objective, and economic reasons are not the only force driving the wheel of history. Protestant ethics has played a great role to some extent. We estimate that the North-South division before the American Civil War may also be a reflection of the struggle between Protestant ethics and the old feudal lords system. At that time, there were still doubts about abstinence and pleasure. Of course, it's just a whimsy after I read it. Everything is just a hypothesis and needs more proof from our reading experience.