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The Protestant Ethic And The Spirit Of Capitalism

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Max Weber was a German sociologist and philosopher in the mid to late 1800s whose ideas have immensely influenced social theory. He is often considered to be one of the founding fathers of sociology alongside Emile Durkheim and Karl Marx. Most of Weber’s work was greatly focused on the concept of rationality and the question of individual freedom in an increasingly rational society. Throughout Weber’s sociological research, he came to a realization that rational capitalism is one of the most fateful forces in our modern life. He also regards legal-rational domination and rational bureaucracy as the other most fateful forces. Weber considers these three phenomena as fateful forces because they greatly influence modern society and they combine to construct what Weber calls the iron cage restricting individual freedom; but what exactly gave rise to these three phenomenons and what makes them such a powerful force in modern day society? …show more content…

“The Calvinist were fascinated by the idea that God in creating the world, including the order of society, must have willed things to be objectively purposefully [..] The active energies of the elect, liberated by the doctrine of predestination, thus flowed into the struggle to rationalize the world” (Weber 224). Features of rationalisation include increasing one's knowledge, growing impersonality and the enhancement of control over social and material life. In relation to rationalisation, the process of disenchantment has also led to the three phenomena that now plague

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