Weber’s study on Religion and Capitalism
Contents
- Introduction
- Background of The Study
- Weber's study of Capitalism
- Weber's Understanding of Religion
- Weber's Study of World Religion
- On Hinduism
- On Buddhism
- On Judaism
- On Confucianism
- On Islam
- On Protestantism
- Correlation of Protestantism and Capitalism
- Conclusion
Introduction
Max Weber (1864-1920) is known as the titan of German sociology. His works represented an important shift towards modern social theory. The classical sociological theories of Marx, Durkheim and the functional school were mainly macrosociological in their approach. The subject matter of macro-sociological theory are large-scale structures and characteristics of society, such as social class, division of labor, power, authority, and broad historical developments. Max Weber moved away from this macro view of society and became concerned with the meaning that an individual associates with his action. Before Weber, no other social thinker emphasized individual action. Weber defined the social world as that of social action, with the sociologist's goal being to understand how individuals act. For Max Weber every social action has a meaning. Some actions performed by individuals are conditioned or automatic, but much of what individuals do is consider a situation, think about how to deal with the situation, think about the possible actions of others, and act in ways that the individual feels are best to achieve their goals. his or her goals. This may be a fully consciously elaborated process, but for it to be considered a social action there must be some meaning associated with the action. The sociologist's job is to try to see how people interpret the situation and make sense of it. His concern for the meaning people give to their actions has allowed him to understand the extent of historical change.
Weber was concerned about the cause of the transformation Western European societies witnessed after the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. The process of industrialization, urbanization, bureaucratization and secularization has led to a drastic progression of European societies, increasingly characterized by the process that Weber defined as rationalization. In an attempt to understand this change, he has tried to examine the loose relationship between religions and economic systems of many civilizations. The current study "The Emergence of the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" is one of his greatest works to study the impact of religion, especially Protestantism, and the impact it has led to the development of the economic system capitalist in the West.
In this article we will try to understand Weber's causal relationship between Protestantism and the development of capitalism. This work is part of the larger picture of his scholarship highlighting the relationship between religions and capitalism around the world. He analyzed the extent to which primitive religion hindered the development of economic rationality, which for Weber was synonymous with capitalism. In his dissertation, Weber tries to explain the relationship between two ideal types, namely the Protestant thesis and capitalism. Sometimes he spoke of correlation and sometimes of causal influences, he consciously dealt with only one side of the causal chain, namely the influence of religious values on economic behavior, which was for him the most important factor in the development of modern capitalism. Economic behavior here refers to the behavior expected of individuals based on the values of punctuality, discipline, commitment and willingness to invest.
Background of the Study
Weber's The Protestant Ethic is the product of the turning point in his intellectual career, shortly after his recovery from a depressive illness that had weakened him in serious academic work. Before his illness, he mainly dealt with subjects of economics, history and law. Weber wrote at a time when German philosophy was influenced by idealism and the progressive dominance of the Marxist vision. In Britain, J.S. Mill's "System of Logic" and Dilthey's humanities or hermeneutical tradition were slowly finding an audience. All of these philosophical views strongly emphasize the centrality of history in the study of human behavior, economic activity, and other fields. Thus history became a focal point for Weber in the study of the social sciences. Weber, in his study of him, approached the Marxist conception of society both as a set of doctrines and as a political force advancing practical ends. While acknowledging Marx's contribution, he expressed reservations about the Marxist view of economic determinism2 in the development of the capitalist stage of production. Both Weber and Marx thinkers had paid close attention to the emergence of modern Western capitalism. For Weber, cultural values wrapped up in the Protestant ethic accelerated the development of modern capitalism. Unlike Weber, Marx's understanding of capitalism was not about the historical conditions that led to the development of capitalism. For Marx, capitalism, like other historical modes of production, is the result of real, material conditions. In short, Marx argued that economic conditions manifest themselves in society and culture, which Weber differed in his magnum opus "The Rise of Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism."
Weber's study of capitalism
Weber's major work was based on examining the causal relationship between Protestantism and its impact on the modern capitalism that was developing in Western Europe. Now it becomes necessary to understand his idea of capitalism. Weber did not define capitalism in general, but he had a general view of modern capitalism that he believed existed in his time. According to him, capitalism is an inexorably moving machine based on the principles of rationalization, division of labor and fixed capital. The rationality of modern Western capitalism according to Weber depends on the calculation of technical factors such as the appropriation of all available physical means of production, i.e. the resources necessary for production can be bought and sold on the market . At the same time, the expansion of the market system should not be restricted. Mechanization and other rational forms of technology would dominate the production process. Eventually, there should be a free labor market, followed by a commercialization of economic life that would allow capital to be mobile and owners of capital to maximize profits in any commercialized field. This leads to the advance of capital in all spheres of economic life and promotes the development of market mechanisms. For Weber, these technical factors lead to the development of capitalism in Western Europe. Max Weber's understanding of the spirit of capitalism was influenced by Benjamin Franklin's Necessary Allusions to Those Who Would Be Rich (1736).
In his book, Weber had cited Franklin's idea of the ideal economic behavior expected of individuals under capitalist conditions. Thus, under capitalist conditions, an employee must be punctual, disciplined and diligent. Therefore, for Weber, capitalism was based on the principle of profit maximization and the accumulation of capital, which was not to be used for worldly pleasures but for the subsequent process of accumulation. In Weber's words, the characteristics of the capitalist economy:
The capitalistic economy of the present day is an immense cosmos into which the individual is born, and which presents itself to him, at least as an individual, as an unalterable order of things in which he must live. It forces the individual, in so far as he is involved in the system of market relationships, to conform to capitalistic rules of action. The manufacturer who in the long run acts counter to these norms, will just as inevitably be eliminated from the economic scene as the worker who cannot or will not adapt himself to them will be thrown into the streets without a job”
Giddens argued in this regard that a rational capitalist enterprise involves two important things for Weber: a disciplined workforce and the regularized investment of capital. The regular reproduction of capital, with constant investment and reinvestment for economic efficiency, is alien to traditional forms of business. It is associated with a very specific vision: the continued accumulation of wealth for its own sake, rather than the material rewards it can bring. “Man is dominated by making money, by acquisition as the ultimate goal of his life. Economic acquisition is no longer subordinated to man as a means of satisfying his material needs. ” This, according to Weber, is the essence of the spirit of modern capitalism
Weber's Understanding of Religion
In addressing Weber's concept of religion, one of the questions that may come to mind is why should we study Max Weber's study of religion? For Weber, religion was not associated with mysticism, but has materialistic origins. Max Weber was not concerned with the essence of religion, but he was particularly interested in discovering the effect of religion or religious behavior in the development of the rationalization process.
Weber argued that religion and its value system or normative order determine the individual's behavior as well as his actions; therefore he believed that it was necessary to study the religions of the world and their impact on individual action. It was with this goal in mind that he made a study of world religions, including Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism (Weber also planned a comprehensive study of Islam, but did not complete it). Together they form an integrated series of works entitled The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and his later studies The Religion of India and The Religion of China.
With 'religions of the world', Weber spoke of 'five religions or religiously determined systems of regulation of life which know how to gather around them multitudes of confessors' (Gerth and Mills, 1946) .
Weber wanted to have a comparative view of the causal relationship between religion and the growth of capitalist ideology. In this regard he had studied the "economic ethics" of religions. The economic ethics of religion refers to the practical impulses of action that are based on the psychological and pragmatic context of religion. Weber hypothesized in his study that economic forces influence religion and that religious systems influence individual thoughts and actions. From now on, the study of this causal relationship becomes essential for him. Weber developed the study of him on the basis of an ideal-type denominator, namely asceticism in the context of religious life and economic activity. Asceticism describes a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from worldly pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals.
Weber used the concept of asceticism to denote a way of living in the world based on the systematic denial of worldly pleasures for the purpose of gaining future rewards and achievements. Weber divided the concept of asceticism into world-rejecting asceticism and inner worldly asceticism. The first concerns the set of norms that prescribe the denial of temptation and worldly things and the second exhorts its members to work in the world to find a calling to salvation. Thus Weber classified world religion into worldly religions and other worldly religions. Weber believed that the religion of the Eastern society, namely Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism advocated otherworldly asceticism as the way to salvation, therefore economic progress and development did not take shape in dominant mode in Eastern society.
Weber's study of world religion
Before examining his work in detail, it should be borne in mind that Weber believed that progress and development in relation to capitalist growth could only be observed in the West and, in this regard, viewed negatively the developments in the East9. His study of different religions can be seen in the following points:
On Hinduism
In his study of India, Weber emphasized the study of the Hindu religion and its impact on the actions of individuals. Weber pointed out that Hindu teachings and belief structures espouse the essence of otherworldly asceticism. He explained that the caste system, a dominant feature of Indian society, is supported by Hindu teachings, making it an obstacle on the path to progress. Weber explained that the doctrine of "karma" (the process of reincarnation and compensation based on one's deed) celebrated by Hinduism is inherently otherworldly because it emphasizes the idea that the work of the individual will conform to the caste duties of the rewarded individual in the hereafter or in his next birth. Thus, he argues that Hinduism preached an "otherworldly asceticism" that emphasized disenchantment with the material, which is meaningless because it is seen as temporary and illusory. It is the welfare of the "Atma" (soul) that is imperishable, immortal is more important in the worldview of Hinduism. Thus, Weber came to the conclusion that such a negative attitude of a religion towards materialism will encourage a negative attitude towards the development of economic activity. Therefore, for Weber, capitalism or economic rationalization will not take root in India, which for him is a nation dominated by the spirit of "otherworldly" asceticism prescribed by Hindu teachings and scriptures.
On Buddhism
Weber's The Religion of India: Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism is a detailed study of the religious dogmas of Hinduism and Buddhism. He believed that Buddhism was propagated by strictly thoughtful, mendicant monks who celebrated the essence of detachment from material pursuits. For him, Buddhism preached the concept of penance and renunciation of all worldly affairs as a path to the goal of salvation. Weber had described in his own words that the Buddha, for whom unconditional withdrawal from the world was an absolute prerequisite for salvation, would have been equally alien to any proletarian denunciation of wealth. Buddhism forms the most radical antithesis of any form of spiteful religiosity. Buddhism clearly emerged as a doctrine of redemption from an intellectual stratum, originally recruited almost entirely from the privileged castes, especially the warrior caste, who proudly and aristocratically rejected the illusions of life, both here and hereafter. Finally, Weber came to the conclusion that this world which rejects asceticism as the only way to salvation, dictated by the Buddhist religion itself, acts as a harmful force in the development of professional man and ultimately in the development of capitalism.
On Judaism
For Weber, Judaism as a religion functioned as the cornerstone of the Christian and Islamic religions. Weber says Judaism could have created the spirit of capitalism. However, certain historical forces have prevented this. Judaism could have participated in the process of industrial capitalism for Weber, but in reality they did not succeed due to their "pariah status". “Paria people” designates a hereditary closed social group without political autonomy. "Jewish pariahs are characterized by the following interconnected external characteristics: on the one hand a table and marriage community with (originally magical) taboos and ritual sanctions that exclude outsiders, and on the other hand a strongly differentiated economic activity through political disinterest and social".
Weber begins his dissertation on Judaism by stating that Jews were the outcasts, who he believed were guests or visitors who were ritually separate from the surrounding political economy and culture. Weber brings here a resemblance of this pariah state of the Jews to that of the Hindu caste structure, where, according to him, both were depressed in their position and wanted to attain redemption by fulfilling religiously ordained duties. Weber argued that as Jews pursued their path to ethical salvation, they placed importance on the ethics of resentment that had been upheld to them because of their disadvantaged position. For Weber, because of these peculiarities, Judaism could not help the progress of industrial capitalism, as the West testifies. The Jewish community gave rise to the development of a "pariah-style capitalism" in which its economic activity was limited to the lending of money. In Judaism, business ethics remain strongly traditionalist in principle. It was characterized by a naive enjoyment of wealth, of course foreign to any systematic intra-worldly asceticism that would favor economic rationalization.
On Confucianism
The religion of Confucianism is based on the principle of humanism. She believes that human beings are inherently good, capable of learning and improving, and that they can achieve perfection through personal and community efforts, especially through self-cultivation and self-creation. . Confucian thought focuses on the cultivation of virtue and respect for ethics. During his research on Confucianism, Weber's central goal was to find out why Eastern China, dominated by Confucian religious belief systems, failed in the process of developing economic rationalization. Weber argues that this religion suffers from the problem of adaptation to the world and that its orders and conventions lack the way to methodical control and rationalization of life. Weber also argues that, because of its inner worldly asceticism and methodical rationalization of life, Confucianism lacks religiously systematized utilitarianism. In general, for Weber, Confucianism emphasized harmony, traditionalism, and family obligations in stark contrast to the relentless pursuit of profit. For example, he noted that Confucianism discouraged professional specialization, which he considered important for the growth of capitalism.
On Islam
Before discussing Weber's idea of Islam, it should be borne in mind that Weber died before completing his Sociology of Religion with a comprehensive study of Islam, but his comments and research on Islamic law are interesting enough to discuss . Weber argued that Islam was a monotheistic religion based on ethical prophecy that rejected magic. 'Allah' (the Almighty One of the Islamic religion) is considered to be the invincible and omniscient entity and the fulfillment of whose commandments was not beyond human power. There was no individual quest for salvation or mysticism in ancient Islam. For Weber, one of the main characteristics of the Islamic religion is its political nature, which can be understood in Weber's own words:
‘the elimination of private feuds in the interest of increasing the group's striking power against external foes; the proscription of illegitimate forms of sexual behavior and the regulation of legitimate sexual relations along strongly patriarchal lines (actually creating sexual privileges only for the wealthy, in view of the facility of divorce and the Maintenance of concubines with female slaves); the prohibition of "usury"; the prescription of taxes for war; and the injunction to support the poor. Equally political in character is the distinctive religious obligation in Islam, its only required dogma the recognition of Allah as the one god and of Muhammad as his prophet'.
Weber discovered that another important characteristic of Islam is its distinctly feudal spirit. Islam accepted slavery, serfdom and polygamy and therefore this subjection of women was obvious. Weber had also stated that Islam as a religion restricted, among other things, the practice of gambling, which has degrading consequences for the development of commercial enterprises.16 Weber eventually came to the conclusion that with this form of ethics religious, economic rationalization is never possible, because it will never provide the necessary social leverage for the countries of the Middle East (nations dominated by Islam) to emerge from feudal stagnation.
On Protestantism
For Weber, Protestantism propagated "this worldly asceticism", which in turn acted as a catalyst in the process of economic activity. According to Weber, there are four main forms of Protestant religion. It's Pietism, Methodism, the sects that spring from the Baptist movement and Calvinism. For Weber, Calvinism in form had the predominant influence in Western Europe. Calvinism, according to Weber, maximizes the moral impulse deriving from active striving for the attainment of salvation and focuses on economic activity. One of the most important doctrines of Calvinism is the doctrine of predestination. According to this, man's destiny is predetermined and cannot be transformed by applying "earthly norms". God had divided mankind into two classes of people; those he had chosen to be saved and those he had chosen to be damned. The former were those who are blessed by God with grace, salvation and eternal life and the latter were those who were judged and were subjected to dishonor and damnation. At the same time, Calvinism has emphasized that it is beyond human capacity to comprehend "God's choice" over the elect and the damned. In his own words he stated:
Everything else, including the meaning of our individual destiny, is hidden in dark mystery which it would be both impossible to pierce and presumptuous to question
Thus, for Weber, unlike other religions, Calvinism did not prescribe detachment from worldly affairs as the path to salvation or the already preordained grace of God. However, this idea of predestination created a sense of isolation and left them with no hope of eternal salvation. One of the important consequences of this doctrine was that it created "salvation anxiety" among Protestants as to whether they were among the "chosen" or the "damned".
Weber ultimately concluded that the Protestant doctrine of predestination and this secular worldview facilitated the rise of capitalism in the West.
Correlation of Protestantism and Capitalism
In his major work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber attempted to show the causal link between the rise of Protestantism and its influence on the development of capitalism. Weber believed that religion had a remarkable influence on the actions of the individual and therefore on the development of society. In this regard, he attempts to show that the remarkable commercial activity in Europe in the 17th century coincides with the rise of Protestantism, which slowly flourished in Europe in the same time zone.
As noted above, the Calvinist doctrine of predestination tends to maximize the fear of salvation among Protestants, who in turn resort to hard work in the pursuit of wealth encouraged by Calvinism. Protestantism, particularly Calvinism, shifts the notion of vocation from religious practices to systematic work. In Weber's words: the grace that was already preordained. However, this idea of predestination created a sense of isolation and left them with no hope of eternal salvation. One of the important consequences of this doctrine was that it created "salvation anxiety" among Protestants as to whether they were among the "chosen" or the "damned".
Weber ultimately concluded that the Protestant doctrine of predestination and this secular worldview facilitated the rise of capitalism in the West.
“The religious valuation of restless, continuous, systematic work in a worldly calling, as the highest means of asceticism, and at the same time the surest and most evident proof of rebirth and genuine faith, must have been the most powerful conceivable lever for the expansion of . . . the spirit of capitalism."
Weber said Protestants needed a distraction from their fear of redemption, which could only be possible through hard work where the fruits of their labor would help them answer the question: Have I been chosen? Success in their work was a sign of God's blessings upon them. For example, they devoted themselves to rational working methods that had the highest success rates. Ultimately, Max Weber had demonstrated with this logic that not only economics, but also religion can be a contributing factor to a stage of development, just as Protestantism helped develop modern Western capitalism.
Conclusion
Weber's study of religion and capitalism represented the progress of the West, which Weber identified with the development of modern capitalist economic organization. His idea of the influence of religion on the development of capitalism in the West was critical of the Marxist understanding of economy and society, where the study of Marx was based on economic determinism, that is, say that Marx believed that the economy or base of any society determines the superstructure of society. For him, religion as part of the superstructure is a form of social control that serves the interests of the respective base or mode of production. Max Weber overturned this notion of Karl Marx that the economy or base determines the superstructure. In his magnum opus The Rise of the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber attempted to show that the superstructure (religion) can act as a catalyst for a historical stage of development. In short, Marx considered the economy as the basis which determines the social superstructure; while Weber viewed economics in part as an extension of religious belief. Despite the differences between these two thinkers, it can be said that they had one thing in common, for Weber, like Marx, saw material interests, not ideas, as the engine of history. Thus, in his studies of religion, he seeks to show that the ideas underlying Calvinist religious beliefs direct the direction of forces that were already in motion.
References
- Coser, L.A (2012) Masters of Sociological Thought: Ideas in Historical and Social Context, Rawat Publications, Jaipur, India
- Collins, R (1990) Weberian Sociological Theory, Cambridge University Press, New York
- Edles, L.D (2009) Sociological Theory in the Classical Era, Max Weber (1864-1920) retrieved from: http://www.uk.sagepub.com/upm-data/30609_4.pdf
- Gerth, H. H. and Mills, C.W. (eds.) (1946), From Max Weber: Essays In Sociology, Oxford University Press, New York, USA.
- Morrison, K (2008) Marx Durkheim Weber: Formations of Social Thought, 2nd edition, Sage, New Delhi, India
Comments