Lec 53: Protestant Ethics and Spirit of Capitalism | Max Weber

In this lecture, we will study about:
1. Max Weber's work of Protestant Ethics and spirit of capitalism
2. Max weber argues that Protestant ethics like Predestination, concept of calling and this wordly asceticism led to the development of spirit of capitalism in the Western world.
3. He constructed an ideal type of Protestant ethics and causally linked it with ideal type of capitalism.
4. He emphasised that these causal relations are partial and probable relations and criticised the monocausal and economic determinism of Karl Marx.
5. He traced how Religion shaped economy.
6. He argued that in other societies like China and India these typical features of capitalism are absent due to ideational and structural barriers generated by caste system and Hinduism in India and confucianism and Taoism in China.
7. He also argued against Pariah capitalism of Jews and Adventuristic and booty capitalism.
8. He criticised Utilitatianism of Jeremy Benthem and JS Mill.
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