The Protestant Ethic and the 'Spirit' of Capitalism - Book Summary

The Protestant Ethic and the "Spirit" of Capitalism by Max Weber presents a very convincing and controversial argument on where the roots of our 'work, work, work' mentality comes from. In this video I provide a summary and a few of my thoughts. Please let me know what you think down in the comments and please click like!

[@caiomoussalem2532]

Weber is probably the most sophisticated sociological thinker that has ever lived. 🙌🙌🙌

[@nimathing2931]

Hi Ryan, this is Nima from Nepal. I have been new to sociology and my prof. recommended this book for review. I was not able to grasp many concepts. But, by visiting your video and your interpretation, I am sure I will be able to get through the materials much better. Thanks a lot!

[@ryfree]

I'm so happy to hear that, I'm glad that it helped!

[@Aleiza_49]

Work prole, work for the profit of the elites, and learn to enjoy it!!! 😎

[@marcoreviews]

Very eloquently spoken! Thanks for sharing!

[@ryfree]

Thank you Marco!

[@machinedean3412]

Your interpretation reminds me the time when I was reading this book in graduate school. Nice job!

[@ryfree]

Thank you Dean!

[@annapaza326]

Thank you for this viedo Ryan! It was really helpful to better understand this book since it's not written in the most easy language :) The way you describe things is really easy :)

[@ryfree]

Very happy to hear that, thank you for commenting :)

[@yrry7207]

Thank you

[@Diana_Free]

I’ll have to read this book. It sounds very interesting and would give me a better understanding of Capitalism. I think work shouldn’t be everything,but it’ll be nice to understand the history of Capitalism, etc. I enjoyed your summary of the book :)

[@ryfree]

Thank you as always Diana! :)

[@jazzeezz]

Thank you for this! Marcuse also made a good connection between Luther, Kant, and Marx. One thing I do not agree with Weber is the causation relationship between Protestantism and Capitalism. I believe it is a contingent relationship instead. I am currently writing my term paper on this where I will be showing that other religions and sects, such as Shiism in Islam, also allow for the growth of capitalism through its ideology and focus on guilt and separation of the spheres.

[@ryfree]

Cool, it sounds like a very interesting paper. Thanks for watching and adding to the conversation!

[@ayushigodiyal9533]

Hi! If you can help me with the paper :) The concept of Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Translated by Talcott Parsons is hard to understand don't know why. A summary seems better than reading a paper of 40 pages.

[@pupametumaschera5488]

Do you think social media is a reflection of the Protestant Ethic?

[@ryfree]

I think the Protestant Ethic no doubt strongly affects social media but I don't think that it's the cause of it. From my perspective, all electronic media comes from some desire in our species to interconnect and commnicate.