The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is about a shift in mentalité. Weber doesn't use that word, because it wouldn't be invented for another few decades, but that's what he's talking about. The "common sense" that we have today -- the bounds of what we can imagine to be possible -- is not "natural". People have not always had it. It came from somewhere. Weber wants to find out where. In this book, Weber is talking about a particularly important shift from one mentalité to another: the one that took place at the historical moment around when Kohlhaas lived, and around when both Protestantism and capitalism arose. He argues, of course, that all these things are related -- and they all combined to form the mentalité, the sense of possibility and impossibility, that defines our lives in a capitalist society (and culture).
An example: as you all know (because I don't shut up about it), I spent the last week writing 70 pages. But, why did I do this? Well, I did it to pass my doctoral preliminary exams. But why am I taking these exams? Because I'm studying to get a PhD. But why do I want a PhD? Because...because...um...I feel like I should...um...achieve something? You know, do something productive with my life? But why do I want to do that? Because...um...that's what I should be doing? That means my life has some meaning?
Now some people wouldn't have stuttered as quickly as I did. If you ask them why they're getting a PhD, they might answer, "Because I can make more money with it," or "Because I could get a better job with it," or something else entirely. But if you keep pushing, if you keep asking why, Weber would argue that sooner or later everyone will reach that "umm" moment, where their only answer is some garbled gobbledygook about doing what they "should" be doing, and that "should" will involve some kind of material achievement. And that, Weber argues, is what distinguishes the capitalist mentalité from the pre-capitalist mentalité. In the pre-capitalist mentalité, I might have taken my exams so I could get a job that allows me to feed myself or my family, or so I could make more money because I really really really looove money, or because I think it would bring glory to the Lord or my family or myself. But the important part is, there wouldn't have been the same ethical and moral feelings attached, the sense of "duty" (Weber 17), the sense that if I didn't somehow "get ahead" and "make something of myself," I would somehow be a bad or worthless person.
In this blog post, I want you to do what I just did -- only longer, in greater detail, and with more text from Weber to back you up. In other words:
1) Read and annotate the Weber -- all of it, including the start of Chapter 3 (course packet pages 200-201) and the end of the book (course packet pages 202-203). See my email for hints on reading this text. Your goal, as you read, is to understand what he is arguing, why, and how he builds his case. (If you're having trouble with this, get in touch with a colleague, or with me, before you write your blog post.)
2) Write a blog post in which you tell a story --as I did -- about a moment or part of your life where you find yourself trapped in the "iron cage" of the capitalist mentalité (Weber 123), and show/explain how Weber helps you understand what happened to you at that moment, and why it happened. Use quotations/moments from the text as you need . Make sure you have at least a few text references in there, used in a responsible and relevant way to help you tell and explain your story. If you can deal with the relationship between "the spirit of capitalism" and "the Protestant ethic," so much the better! And of course, references to "Michael Kohlhaas" or other texts we've read are always fair game -- as long as they're helping you say what you want to say.
(***NOTE #1: Make sure you understand the context of the moments/quotes you use! For instance, don't say that under capitalism, "The opportunity of earning more was less attractive than that of working less" (Weber 24). That IS an actual quote from Weber, but he's talking about life BEFORE capitalism! Under capitalism, he says, exactly the opposite is the case. Be careful.)
(***NOTE #2: Keep in mind that "the Protestant ethic" has nothing to do with whether you, yourself, are a Protestant or not. I'm a practicing Jew, and I've got plenty of Protestant ethic in me. It's in the mentalité. It's in the air we breathe. Or rather, it feels like it's in the air we breathe. It's actually socially and culturally produced, as Weber explains.)
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