1. Max Weber ( )
No one knows who will live in this cage in the future, or whether at the end of this tremendous development entirely new prophets will arise, or there will be a great rebirth of old ideas and ideals; or if neither, mechanized petrification embellished with a sort of convulsive self-importance. For of the last stage of this cultural development it might well be truly said: “Specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart; this nullity imagines that it has attained a level of civilization never before achieved.

2. Rationalization
rationalization: the process whereby an increasing number of social actions and social relationships become based on considerations of efficiency or calculation
Values, traditions, and emotions are displaced in favor of formal and impersonal bureaucratic practices
The Protestant Ethic & the Spirit of Capitalism shows how the bases of social action in modern capitalism shift:
from traditional and affective to rational
from value-rational to instrumental-rational

3. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
(1904)

4. What’s the connection between Protestantism and capitalist development?
Weber wonders…
Why, in modern Europe, are business leaders and owners of capital, as well as high-ranking skilled labor, and the higher technically and commercially trained personnel of modern enterprises overwhelmingly Protestant?
Why, even in the early 16th century, were the centers of early capitalist development predominantly Protestant?

5. Isn’t religion the opposite of materialism?
Weber was puzzled by what seemed like an anomaly
typically those whose lives are bound up with the pursuit of economic gain are either indifferent to religion or positively hostile to it
their lives are focused on the material, whereas religion is concerned with the immaterial

6. The inductive method
Weber explains that he's studying a phenomenon that is significant for its "unique individuality"
The rise of modern capitalism in the West will only happen once, yet is no less sociologically significant
Weber does not begin with a definition of the concept, the "spirit of capitalism," only a "provisional description"
Empirical study of this historical case – the rise of capitalism in the West – is used to build the concept, from the ground-up
"Thus the final definitive concept cannot stand at the beginning of the investigation, but must come at the end"
Contrast with Marx's and Durkheim's deductive approach
assumption that the “capitalist system” or the “social organism” operates according to a set of general laws

7. Protestant asceticism
One of fundamental elements of the spirit of modern capitalism, and modern culture in general is the spirit of Christian asceticism
Weber calls this kind of austerity and renunciation the essence of middle class life
For background, he turns to a historical document of that spirit, the popular writings on saving and thrift from Benjamin Franklin
Weber believes this document captures the spirit of capitalism in almost "classical purity," and thus could be likened to an ideal type

8. The Protestant ethic
“The peculiarity of this philosophy of avarice appears to be the idea of the honest man of recognized credit, and above all the idea of a duty of an individual toward the increase of his capital, which is assumed as an end in itself. Truly what is here preached is not simply a means of making one's way in the world, but a peculiar ethic. The infraction of its rules is treated not as foolishness but as forgetfulness of duty…It is not mere business astuteness, that sort of thing is common enough, it is an ethos.“ (171)
aim is to earn more and more money -- while avoiding all enjoyment of life
economic acquisition becomes an end in itself (in this world)
proof of “grace”

9. Calvinism
The notion of a calling is technically irrational, but Weber is describing a particular kind of calling
How does this state of affairs come about?
most interpret this as a story about the triumph of ideas and skip over the theological part
We should view the problem in terms of salvation
Calvinists believed in predestination, which refers to God’s purpose or plan for us
They did not believe that good acts on part of humanity are redeeming
Also a statement about the grace of God, since acts of humanity are unrelated to the probability of getting into heaven
Despair is a sin; it's abandoning the hope of God's grace
One must act as if s/he had utter confidence of God's grace – even though s/he can't do anything about it

10. Faith replaced by an iron cage of rationality
Over time capitalism loses the ethical driving force that spurred its initial rise
"The Puritan wanted to work in a calling; we are forced to do so"
 "Fate decreed that the cloak should become an iron cage"
he means the cloak of rationality, which earlier ascetics wore voluntarily
He characterized "the last stage of this cultural development" thus: "Specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart; this nullity imagines that it has attained a level of civilization never before achieved."

11. Rejection of historical materialism
Weber argues that there's an "elective affinity" b/w Calvinism or certain sorts of Calvinist beliefs and the economic ethics of modern capitalism
Not a causal argument, religious beliefs don’t “cause” capitalism
Weber rejects historical materialism, but doesn't try to replace it with idealism
"But it is of course not my aim to substitute for a one-sided materialistic an equally one-sided spiritualistic causal interpretation of culture and of history"

12. Alternative explanations
Engels, and others, claimed that Protestantism was a reflection of economic changes in the early development of capitalism
a materialist explanation
Weber disagrees: "We must free ourselves from the view that one can deduce the Reformation as a historically necessary development from economic changes.“
rejection of historical materialism
Weber insists that modern capitalism is different than "economic traditionalism"
a man does not "by nature" wish to earn more and more money, but simply to live as he lives and as he is accustomed to live, and to earn as much as is required to do so" -- it’s not natural

13. Capitalism isn’t immoral…
Modern capitalism is not about immoral pursuit of gain, but upon disciplined obligation of work as duty
 a unique combination of devotion to earning of wealth thru legit economic activity together with the avoidance of using income for personal enjoyment