Max Weber Protestant Work Ethic
Behavioural Science
Student Name:
Student Number:
Module: PSYC 6003
Max Weber’s Protestant work ethic and its relevance to modern economics
Due Date: 18/04/12
Max weber’s Protestant work ethic and its relevance to modern economics
While functionalism and Marxism discuss how religion is a conservative force in preventing social change, weber argued that sometimes, religion can cause social change. Marx and weber are upside down in relation to each others ideas. Marx believed that the economic system knowing as capitalism determined and shaped religion. Weber argued that it was the other way around. Sometimes religion can influence how the economy is organised. Weber was a social action theorist. He believed human behaviour is shaped by individual’s motives and desires. Weber talked about people having a world view. This is the idea or opinion, of the world that members of a community or society. Religion is often a very important part of a societies world view. So weber wanted to test out his idea, that religious beliefs can sometimes shape economic systems.
“I ... want to register a protest against ... the proposition ... that anything, be it technology or economics, is the ... "ultimate" or "essential" cause of anything else. . . . The chain of causation ... runs sometimes from technological to economic and political, sometimes from political to religious and then to economic matters, etc. At no point do we come to a resting place.”(1)
Weber noticed that the western capitalism developed in particular European countries. He also noticed that these countries had followed Calvinist Protestantism. Calvinist saw their work was a calling from god. It was a moral duty. Calvinist believed in the elect. People chosen and predestined by god, before birth, to go to heaven. No matter how hard you worked on earth, if you were not one of the elect, you wouldn’t go to heaven. So how could this belief motivate people to work hard?
“…deeply religious
Student Name:
Student Number:
Module: PSYC 6003
Max Weber’s Protestant work ethic and its relevance to modern economics
Due Date: 18/04/12
Max weber’s Protestant work ethic and its relevance to modern economics
While functionalism and Marxism discuss how religion is a conservative force in preventing social change, weber argued that sometimes, religion can cause social change. Marx and weber are upside down in relation to each others ideas. Marx believed that the economic system knowing as capitalism determined and shaped religion. Weber argued that it was the other way around. Sometimes religion can influence how the economy is organised. Weber was a social action theorist. He believed human behaviour is shaped by individual’s motives and desires. Weber talked about people having a world view. This is the idea or opinion, of the world that members of a community or society. Religion is often a very important part of a societies world view. So weber wanted to test out his idea, that religious beliefs can sometimes shape economic systems.
“I ... want to register a protest against ... the proposition ... that anything, be it technology or economics, is the ... "ultimate" or "essential" cause of anything else. . . . The chain of causation ... runs sometimes from technological to economic and political, sometimes from political to religious and then to economic matters, etc. At no point do we come to a resting place.”(1)
Weber noticed that the western capitalism developed in particular European countries. He also noticed that these countries had followed Calvinist Protestantism. Calvinist saw their work was a calling from god. It was a moral duty. Calvinist believed in the elect. People chosen and predestined by god, before birth, to go to heaven. No matter how hard you worked on earth, if you were not one of the elect, you wouldn’t go to heaven. So how could this belief motivate people to work hard?
“…deeply religious
References: Chicago, IL, USA: University of Chicago Press, 2004. p 113. New Haven, CT, USA: Yale University Press, 2003. p 14. Waterloo, ON, CAN: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 1997. p 67. Chicago, IL, USA: University of Chicago Press, 2004. p 148.