nf0090: okay i think we'd better get started [1.0] i'm namex and i'm just 
giving a lecture er [0.4] today on [0.2] Max Weber [0.5] and er [0.7] The 
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism which is the text [0.2] er for [0.
6] this seminar [0.3] and i do just er for the semin-, the seminar that goes 
with with this lecture [0.3] i do just want to stress it is absolutely vital 
that you read this text [0.7] if you read nothing else for this [0.4] read this 
text [0.5] a lot of the [0.8] essays the additional reading that you have that 
you will find [0.4] on Max Weber [1.5] a lot of it is pretty impenetrable [0.5] 
some of it is clear [0.4] but [0.2] the clearest thing you can read and the 
most er [0.3] wonderful text you can read is just what he wrote himself [0.3] 
on this so [0.3] get the text [0.5] and read it [0.7] er [0.2] it's not that 
expensive if you can't get it from the library it's something you should [0.3] 
have er in your your own library [0.4] for [0.5] time to come [0.2] it is a 
great er er er er a great er text [1.7] okay [0.2] well [0.2] i want to start 
off first of all by saying a little bit about the life of of Max Weber who was 
he who wrote [0.5] The 
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism [0.9] well Frank Parkin in his er 
[0.3] little [0.3] survey for sociologists which is quite readable this is this 
with Giddens is er [0.6] is a [0.2] a fairly good summary if you [0.7] er 
haven't read anything on on Weber before [0.7] er [0.4] he provides us with a 
[0.4] very brief [0.2] very brief and pretty irreverent portrait of Max Weber 
as a bourgeois scholar [0.4] of wilhemi-, Wilhemine Germany [0.6] with a 
Victorian pater familias [0.5] er and [sigh] man who had lots of Oedipus 
complexes [0.7] er [0.6] that [0.4] he had melancholia and frustrated political 
ambitions [0.6] and along the way [0.8] we see out of this coming enorm-, vast 
enormous productive energies in er studies on the law religious systems 
political economy and authority systems [1.1] er [0.2] i want to fill out a 
little bit about this life er before discussing the text [0.4] er [0.7] and 
this tour de force The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism [1.5] 
Weber was born in eighteen-sixty-four [0.6] in [0.3] Erfurt [0.2] a Hanseatic 
town [0.5] this is quite important in his formation [0.4] er [0.4] one of the 
towns er in the the 
hansea-, [0.2] g-, er in the Hanseatic League [0.5] er [0.5] one of the 
merchant towns a classic m-, early modern er th-, merchant towns of er [0.5] er 
of Germany [0.5] his father was a jurist and municipal councillor [0.4] and he 
came from a family of linen merchants and textile manufacturers [0.8] er [0.9] 
we can see a lot of this text [0.5] the what he's writing in this text [0.3] 
being written [0.4] in that context in response [0.4] to er [0.2] his own 
family background [0.4] amongst er [0.2] er his community background and his 
family background amongst this er these merchants [0.9] he moved to Berlin [0.
5] and er [0.5] er his father that is the family mo-, moved to Berlin [0.5] er 
which was soon to become [0.2] the booming capital of Bismarck's Reich [0.4] 
and [0.5] er Weber's father was to become a pro-, prosperous politician [0.6] 
he was a right wing liberal who used his home as a talking shop for local 
academics for businessmen [0.4] artists and various other political bigwigs [0.
7] now in Parkin's er [0.3] words [0.3] Weber would have listened from an early 
l-, age to a lot of high-minded chatter and less than enlightened politics [1.
0] but [0.3] he also had a 
mother [0.3] not just a father we have to look at the role of mothers in er the 
formation of our intellectuals as well as [0.4] the f-, the fathers [0.4] er [0.
4] and she was a cultured and liberal Protestant [0.5] but a woman who had 
become an overburdened [0.2] hausfrau [0.9] she was religious and felt a 
vocation to charity and good works [0.5] but these things were of no interest 
to her husband [0.4] er [0.4] and [0.2] certainly parental relations in the 
family home er were estranged [0.4] it was clear that Weber senior was a 
martinet to his children and [0.3] very er overbearing and autocratic er in his 
behaviour to his wife [1.0] er [0.5] now [0.8] what happens er with with Weber 
is that from his school days he drew away from the the piety of his mother and 
the philistinism of his father [0.4] and [0.4] er [0.6] decided that academic 
pursuits were going to be his his way in life and he went off to university in 
Heidelberg [0.4] there he certainly played the er the role of the the student 
prince [0.6] er [0.5] engaging in all kinds of er fun and games as well as a a 
bit of work [0.6] er but [0.2] he later continued his 
studies in Strasburg and Göttingen [0.5] where he studied law [1.0] he went he 
did his period of of military service [1.0] and after his studies went on to 
take up [0.2] service in the law courts in Berlin [0.4] er where he worked on a 
PhD thesis er [0.2] the first thesis he did his PhD sis-, thesis [1.0] went 
back [0.4] to his own origins he worked on the trading companies during the 
Middle Ages [0.9] and er [0.7] in eighteen-ninety he passed a second law exam 
[0.3] and he did what the er followed the the common German practice which 
continues to this day [0.3] of doing a second thesis [0.5] the habilitatation h-
, habilitation [0.4] and with a treatise on the history of agrarian 
institutions [0.7] and this was a sociology an economic and cultural analysis 
of ancient societies [1.0] now finally this is a long period of study that he 
that he went through [0.4] he then married er the grand niece of his father [0.
5] Marianne Schnitger [0.5] and lived the life of a successful young scholar in 
[0.2] Berlin where he became a professor [0.5] of er economics er [0.3] he er 
[0.4] he was in Berlin as a as a as a young 
scholar [0.3] and then he went on to become a professor of of economics at 
Freiburg [0.5] in eighteen-ninety- [0.2] four [1.0] er [0.4] er what we what he 
did in frei-, he had a huge workload in Freiburg and just seemed absolutely 
obsessed with work [0.5] this er certainly became a very important 
characteristic of his life [0.6] er he went on to take a chair at Heidelberg in 
eighteen-ninety- [0.2] six [0.9] er [0.7] but [0.7] in eighteen-ninety-seven [0.
7] he er and he'd oh as [0.3] i'll just sort of say a little bit [0.3] he er [0.
2] he when he the chair that he took in in Heidelberg replaced one of the [0.4] 
er [0.2] er a m-, [0.2] a man named Kniess who was one of the heads of the 
German Historical School [0.3] so he was very much part of that er [0.5] that 
er general historiographical tradition of the time the German Historical School 
a lot of [0.4] er [1.0] er a lot of er [0.4] people at the time writing 
histories with a great er [0.2] economic and sociological sort of content to 
them [0.6] and er [0.9] but he has what happens then in eighteen-ninety-seven 
[0.3] he has a crisis his father died [0.6] er this is was the the onset of his 
his crisis his father died [0.4] er [0.3] and he d-, just before his 
father's death he'd had a huge [0.4] quarrel with him a huge fight with him [0.
5] over er the way he was his er Weber's mother was being treated by his father 
[0.7] and er [1.3] he didn't see ge-, get to see his father [0.3] before he 
died he'd had this big f-, big fight with him so felt terrible guilt and 
remorse after this [0.7] and had a nervous breakdown [2.0] so [0.7] and he 
suffered for the rest of his life from [0.5] severe depression [0.5] 
interspersed by [0.2] manic work [0.2] and periods of travel [0.6] so that 
really was sort of marked his life from from that time onward we see [0.5] er 
[0.5] this er [1.7] this this [sigh] [0.6] conflict with the father [0.5] and 
then this period of s-, of er a nervous breakdown after after his father's 
death and er [0.5] it affecting him for the rest of his life [1.0] well in 
nineteen-o-two he returned to some duties he did some teaching ad-, and 
administration [0.4] but he was mainly doing a lot of travelling [0.4] er [0.3] 
after this time [0.4] and er he travelled i-, during this time and he travelled 
er through to Italy [0.7] he hoped he would recuperate in Italy but he couldn't 
concentrate [0.5] and er [0.6] he did 
start to do some writing and in nineteen-o-four [0.5] wrote [0.3] the first 
chapter of The Protestant Ethic [0.7] so he writes that that first chapter then 
[0.3] but immediately after that [0.3] he set off to the U-S [0.8] and it was 
his [0.2] it was you know this was er a really a big event for him [0.2] it was 
his trip to his first trip to America [0.7] and he went with er other leading 
figures German figures of the time [0.4] Werner Sombart [0.4] and er and 
Troeltsch [0.6] but particularly Sombart who was someone i'll [0.2] we we'll be 
mentioning him la-, after [0.4] who that he he came to debate The Protestant 
Ethic er with [0.6] now he was enthralled by er the United States by [0.3] the 
pace of life in the big cities [0.5] er he was bemused by the democratic 
customs of the natives there [0.4] but found in in it absolutely exhilarating 
experience er [0.6] er seeing it [0.2] and he came to write about it quite a 
lot in the The Protestant Ethic [0.6] he he wanted to enter sympathetically 
into the New World [0.5] er [0.2] but wanted to retain his capacity for an 
informed judgement on the directions it was taking [1.9] er [0.2] he was [0.9] 
absolutely er 
fascinated by the characteristics of American capitalism [0.6] er [0.5] 
impressed by the extent of the waste of human life in er this frenetic activity 
of money making er [0.3] in in the U-S [0.4] and [0.3] in New York decided he 
would look for material that he could [0.4] use to develop this the chapter 
that he'd started before he'd left [0.4] and it started the The Protestant 
Ethic [0.2] so that experience in America was also extreme was absolutely 
fundamental [0.4] to what he came [0.3] to write [0.3] in [0.2] The Protestant 
Ethic [1.2] er [1.2] now [0.2] after he returned to German er Germany he 
finished [0.4] the [0.2] finished the text [1.1] then the Russian er the first 
ru-, Russian revolution [0.4] er [0.5] was something that was [0.4] er [0.3] 
redirected his attention and his scholarly interest [0.5] and [0.2] this man of 
enormous er energies he [0.4] he was also you know working flat out er [0.3] 
well he had these these periods when he sort of went in for this sort of manic 
work [0.3] and he [0.5] managed to learn Russian in bed before getting up each 
morning [0.2] imagine it [0.6] [laughter] er so that he could follow the 
Russian daily press and he wrote a piece on the nineteen-o-five revolution [0.
8] 
so he's very much one of these er what we find er [0.4] with er with ver-, 
Weber he's very much one of this generation of universal scholars [0.3] that we 
find er in this period [0.4] a lawyer [0.2] an economist [0.2] a historian a 
philosopher he ranged across these fields [0.5] he was also well acquainted 
with the [0.4] the thi-, the liter-, all the lot of literature on the theology 
of his day [0.6] er he did an enormous quantity of work [0.8] and er [1.0] i 
have to say it was a rather different kind of setting than er we find in 
universities today [0.5] there was a lot of research time [0.4] available [0.2] 
to then [0.4] and there was no er pressure for rapid publication [0.4] so he 
was d-, er ranging across these fields doing a huge amount of research and er 
learning a [0.3] a huge amount over many fields [0.4] but er in a rather 
different setting than er than we face in in in universities now [0.6] er [1.8] 
but this was something that certainly allowed him to range widely over the 
humanities [0.8] er and [0.3] we find him being transformed er [0.3] the the 
whole world of the of the the German scholar the German er [0.5] er the [0.2] 
the German professor over that period 
was being transformed from [0.5] er a petty bourgeois [0.4] sort of character 
harried by money into an upper class academician [0.4] with a large house and 
the facilities to establish an international salon culture [0.5] so he's moved 
certainly moved into that that world by this time [1.0] he was also er Weber 
was also one of the er the last of the political [0.2] professors [0.7] er [0.
7] he made [0.9] contributions er [1.0] er detached contributions to science 
and er and a-, also acted as a as a political f-, figure in the intellectual 
vanguard of the middle classes [0.5] er at the time [0.4] but he was much less 
successful than he would like to have been he was a sort of [1.0] he he tried 
to have a political career [0.3] almost did it [0.2] but didn't [0.4] er [1.5] 
he er at the age of fifty-four [0.3] he allowed his name to go forward as a 
candidate for the German Democratic Party [0.2] but didn't bother to canvass 
thought that [0.5] people should just know who he was and er [0.3] and and vote 
for him [0.5] er [0.8] he thought he expected he would be he would be adopted 
as the party candidate but was passed over for a local non-entity and he was 
very 
deeply hurt [0.2] by this [0.3] so at the end of the day [0.3] this was a man 
who was better about writing about the mechanics of power [0.4] than dealing in 
its practicalities [0.5] er [1.7] so er [0.2] he he w-, de-, was very 
disappointed and he actually he ended up dying shortly after this at the age of 
fifty-six [0.5] but gosh he was just fifty-six and the [0.5] volume of the his 
his scholarly output by this time was absolutely amazing [0.8] er [0.4] but 
this inde-, and indeed this was one of the shortest er [0.6] tracts that he he 
he ever wrote [0.3] it was a short and inspired piece of writing [0.5] er [0.3] 
it represented Weber's early turning to broader cultural themes and one of [0.
5] er it was very much one of the early pieces he wrote after [0.3] his 
breakdown [3.2] er [0.9] as i said before it was written in two parts over the 
period nineteen-o-four to five er [0.2] interspersed by this t-, er trip to 
America [1.8] er [3.0] now [0.9] just to say er something on the context [0.3] 
in which it was written [0.5] i just want to er to set that out first of all [0.
4] Weber's often [0.2] thought about as a theorist who championed [0.7] the 
cause of the independent role of [0.2] er 
ideas and social life but he also had strong materias-, [0.2] materialist 
leanings [0.4] so we can sort of er debate that that issue [0.5] er [0.5] 
there's a lot of misunderstandings of The Protestant Ethic [0.6] er [0.6] 
really taken from [0.2] Baudelairizing [0.2] the thesis creating a kind of 
Baudelairized thesis that Calvinism was the principal cause of capitalism [0.7] 
of ideas leading er to the to the economic system [0.4] er but this is not er 
[0.4] this is not [0.3] how we should characterize er the argument in this text 
[0.4] first of all [0.3] we have to see [0.3] that there was a very important 
[0.3] social and political context for this essay [0.6] er [0.3] i d-, i want 
to to to come to [0.4] the characteristics of of of that context [0.4] it was 
written in the context of a contemporary debate [0.3] in Germany [0.2] on the 
differences between [0.5] Protestants and Catholics [1.2] and the impact of 
this [0.3] on [0.4] social structure [0.3] and social status [0.7] and [0.2] 
the broader background to that [0.5] goes [0.4] back to the context of the 
Kulturkampf [0.3] in [0.2] Prussia [0.4] that period which Bismarck had 
launched of er [0.4] er discrimination against the Catholics [1.9] so 
this turns of course a lot of the the civil service the er the state sort of 
denies this [0.3] but what it turns into is an academic [0.3] er aspects of it 
turning into an academic debate [0.3] on the positions of Catholics [0.3] er in 
the society [0.6] and and the the er the the Catholic er Protestant [0.3] 
division [0.6] the other er [0.5] er context i want to draw attention to [0.4] 
er in this is the whole approach that that Weber took [0.4] in writing er 
writing this this essay [0.3] it's a very simple [0.4] er [0.8] simple er si-, 
simple approach a sort of simple er formulation [0.3] of the question er [1.3] 
he combined what he managed to do was to combine a sensitivity to [0.4] diverse 
structural meanings er [0.3] in this [0.3] with [0.2] an insi-, an insistence 
on [0.3] an abs-, a fundamental causal role [0.6] for er [0.4] material factors 
in influencing the course of history [1.6] he drew on elements of Marx but he 
was not [0.2] definitely not a a Marxist never accepted er Marxism [0.3] 
rejected its politics [0.2] but he certainly did draw on elements of Marx [0.9] 
the essay was also as i [0.3] i [0.2] it it presents a sort of fairly simple 
formulation because it was highly focused [0.3] he wanted to make a very 
clear and focused [0.3] explanation of what he was putting [0.3] forward [0.3] 
he rejected [0.4] er a multidimensional analysis of the whole problem betw-, of 
religion and society [0.9] and [0.2] focused on the economic sector [0.5] was 
the eco-, he w-, he focused right down [0.2] into the the economic sector [0.3] 
and the rise of what he called a rational capitalism [2.2] so he was [0.7] 
interested in two things a rational capitalism [0.3] and [0.3] its religious 
preconditions [0.5] now the other interesting thing about [0.3] the religious 
preconditions that he looks at [0.3] he doesn't look at all religious 
preconditions [0.4] by any means [0.9] he [0.2] foc-, he doesn't even look at 
Germans and Lutherans [0.3] instead he focuses in [0.4] on [0.5] Anglo-Saxons 
[0.5] he talks about Americans a lot here as well [0.5] and [0.2] the Calvinist 
world [0.3] so [0.4] he centres his argument on on those aspects [0.4] so [0.3] 
he was looking [0.3] to find [0.4] in this [0.3] much more focused er approach 
[0.8] to to find the guiding principles of conduct [0.5] and the value system 
governing patterns of behaviour [0.8] that's really what he's trying to do [0.
3] now let's turn to his 
argument [0.5] which you will find by reading the text [0.9] okay [0.2] very 
clearly set out [0.4] first of all he tells us he wants to tell us about 
capitalism [0.5] and you'll find on your handout [0.7] my spelling isn't very 
good so you'd better correct er [0.8] er [0.2] perhaps some kind of [0.8] slip 
there [0.2] but er [0.5] not mens but means [0.5] okay [0.6] now if we turn to 
his argument he he tells us first what he er [0.7] er [0.9] what he [0.2] he 
wants to single out in his definitions of capitalism [0.8] what The Protestant 
Ethic starts with er The Protestant Ethic starts with is a very fairly broad 
and [0.5] e-, very contestable if you read these you will find these very 
contestable but er [0.5] er contrasts he wants to set out contrasts [0.3] 
between the development of the West and the East [1.2] so [0.2] we get [1.1] 
the West the the East and the West er set out [0.3] as different systems [0.4] 
and [0.5] he looks at rational systems in the West he sees s-, argues there are 
more rational systems developed in the West [0.5] er in music in architecture 
in perspective [0.6] er that there's trained officials of the state [0.4] that 
the state er [0.7] er itself has sort of a rational structure with a written 
constitutional constitution [0.6] 
rationally ordained law and an administration bound to rules or laws [0.7] 
capitalism was not then identified [0.2] with greed [0.2] for gain [0.9] but 
identified with the pursuit of profit [1.6] an ever renewed profit [0.3] by 
means of continuous [0.4] rational [0.3] capitalistic enterprise [1.0] so 
that's what he he sees as as the central er the central point [0.3] in in 
capitalism [0.3] it was that pursuit of profit [0.7] er [1.2] and ever renewed 
profit [0.5] and that pursued by rational capitalistic enterprise [1.9] now he 
argues certainly [0.5] ca-, er calculation was carried on in India [0.8] where 
the decimal system was invented [1.1] but [0.7] that decimal system was only 
really made use of by developing capitalism in the West he argues [0.4] er in 
India it led to no [0.3] modern bookkeeping [1.3] er [0.5] and he cites other 
examples like China [0.6] where we see [0.2] origins of er mathematics and 
mechanics t-, er [0.9] but er [1.6] the [0.5] again the technical utilization 
of this knowledge er [0.3] was not taken up [0.2] in the way that it was in in 
the West [0.8] so we have that East-West comparison set out a-, at the 
beginning [0.8] er [2.4] so [0.8] er 
finally [0.2] just to to recap [0.4] er [0.5] capitalist action [0.4] as we see 
in the West involved regular pursuit of profit [0.2] through economic exchange 
[2.7] now [0.4] Weber also goes into different types of capitalism [1.2] okay 
he's got er [1.1] the the the different types of capitalism [0.4] he he [0.3] 
enquires into [1.1] these were set out as [0.2] booty capitalism [0.2] that is 
the robber barons [1.9] pariah capitalism [1.5] now this is a kind of 
commercial activity [0.6] which [0.2] he identified with forms of money lending 
[0.5] and again [0.5] sets this discusses this in terms of Jewish enterprise [0.
6] now this led to a lot of debate over the the text later on [0.3] er 
especially the er debate that he has with Sombart [0.4] who takes this further 
and argues that er [0.5] we can see sort of origins of capitalism [0.3] being 
tied up with [0.2] er [0.5] the er enterprise of the Jews [0.5] er [1.1] but [1.
2] i think it's a very interesting er area i won't be able to go into it in any 
depth today but it's something that er you may want to pursue in your seminars 
and er [0.3] and your essays [0.3] but [0.3] that was an a a fair-, a central 
part of the some of the critique of 
the work the er what he had to say about this [0.3] area [0.3] he identified as 
er [0.3] i'll put it down here [0.4] pariah capitalism [6.5] okay [0.6] er [0.
6] now [0.5] er partly Weber didn't think that this kind of capitalism was 
central to the whole process [0.4] because of the er [0.8] partly because the 
Jews were excluded from the core of economic life [0.2] er [0.2] and [0.5] this 
was a capitalism that opered operated on the fringes of of er the society [0.8] 
so er [0.3] he doesn't er he doesn't pursue that er [0.2] as as he might have 
[0.9] now he also er set out traditional capitalism [2.0] that's large scale [0.
2] lending er large scale undertakings in all civilizations [0.2] which were 
set up for specific ends [2.2] and then finally rational capitalism [0.9] 
economic activity [0.3] geared to a regular market [0.2] the use of bookkeeping 
[0.3] systematic pursuit of profit [0.6] this is the kind of capitalism [0.3] 
that he's specifically interested in [0.4] and only in the West do we see [0.2] 
he argues this kind of capitalistic activity [0.3] becoming associated with the 
rational organization of formally free labour a disciplined 
labour force 
nf0090: another [0.5] er [sigh] [0.3] he he s-, he goes into this in a little 
more detail on the [0.3] the different types of socio-economic pac-, factors 
distin-, distinguishing the European experience from India and China [0.3] so 
we get er more detail then [0.3] provided on India and China [0.5] er [0.6] 
what [0.2] he sees coming out in the West is in contrast to his perception of 
the East [0.4] is a separation of productive enterprise from the household [0.
4] in in the West [0.7] the development of the western city [0.7] another 
characteristic [0.9] and er [0.6] a rational [0.3] practice of juridical er 
well er the the rationalization of juridical practice [4.2] the development of 
a nation state [0.2] administered by bureaucratic officials and finally double 
entry bookkeeping [0.4] double entry bookkeeping always plays a big er [0.4] 
big part in these conceptions of of the West [1.9] okay [2.9] and so out of 
this [0.2] we get er [0.6] a characterization of what becomes an ideal type [1.
0] this was a [0.4] very [0.8] important for Weber [1.0] the definition of 
these various ideal types [1.4] so this kind of rational capitalism that he's 
described with all these various er characteristics i've set out [0.4] er this 
became his ideal type [0.6] and it was also associated with a specific 
character [0.9] the culture [0.2] of [0.2] the entrepreneur [4.0] now where 
does he find this culture of the entrepreneur [1.4] er [0.8] now the examples 
he draws our attention to [0.3] are American examples he takes us [0.5] back [0.
3] to er [0.4] Ben Franklin [0.4] and the philosophy of American capitalism [0.
9] all of these these aphorisms that are so famous er [0.3] in Ben Franklin [0.
6] remember [0.3] time is money [0.2] he that can earn ten shillings a day by 
his labour and goes abroad or sits idle one half that day [0.5] though he 
spends but sixpence during his diversion or idleness ought not to reckon [0.4] 
that the only expense [0.3] he has really spent or rather thrown away five 
shillings besides [0.8] remember credit is money [0.2] if a man lets his money 
lie in my hands after it is due [0.3] he gives me the interest [0.2] or as much 
as i can make of it during that time [0.7] er [1.2] this amounts to a 
considerable s-, er sum where a man has [0.2] good and large credit and makes 
good use of it [2.6] 
money can beket beget money [0.7] er [1.8] i'm just i'm just er [1.0] and its 
offspring can ge-, beget more and so on [1.0] and he goes on to say that er [0.
9] the most trifling actions that affect a man's credit are to be regarded [0.
3] the sound of your hammer at five in the morning [0.2] or at eight at night 
heard by a creditor makes him easy six months longer [0.8] boy now you know it 
[0.7] but if he sees you at the billiard table [0.6] or hears your voice at a 
tavern [0.3] when you should be at work he sends for his money the next day 
demands it [0.2] before he can receive it in a lump [0.8] so these are the 
sorts of er [0.4] the aphorisms that became that he he identifies with with 
American capitalism [0.4] and [0.3] er [0.2] sees as as an aspect of that 
culture of the entrepreneur that he wants to draw into this analysis [0.4] and 
so we get him moving on [0.3] to where does this come from [0.3] and moving on 
to this concept of the calling [0.9] er so we move here into religion [0.4] the 
calling and [0.2] er ca-, [0.2] Calvinism [2.1] and [1.6] Weber [1.1] in [0.4] 
a-, as he did before in trying to define capitalism [0.3] in con-, and looking 
at a comparative er [0.5] analysis 
of East and West does so also [0.4] with [0.2] er religion [0.3] he looks at a 
comparison of religions [0.5] and er [0.3] argues that the behaviour of his 
Protestant en-, entrepreneurs differs from that of entrepreneurs under all 
other world religions [1.4] and [0.8] so this this t-, er this book then became 
a fragment in a study of world religions that he embarked on er er later [0.4] 
er where he studied Judaism Hinduism Buddhism and Confucianism [0.6] er [0.2] 
he said of Hinduism [0.3] that it was otherly er otherworldly [0.5] directed 
towards escaping the encumbrances of the material world [0.4] rather than 
rational mastery of that world [1.1] er [2.3] he wrote about [0.3] certainly 
wrote about the period when Hinduism became systematized and trade and 
manufacture reached its peak in India [0.5] i mean we cannot deny that the 
great merchants of the er [0.6] er of the world [0.2] during from the er the or 
across the early modern period into the eighteenth century before they were 
pushed aside especially by the British [0.4] er the great merchants of the 
south er [0.6] the South er China Seas the er the 
whole of the Indian Ocean area [0.3] that whole area between the Mediterranean 
and China [0.4] er [0.5] were that whole area was dominated by Indian merchants 
[0.2] trading across this va-, vast area [0.4] so certainly it didn't er mean 
that the Indians were not not good a-, good at this [0.5] but he argued the 
affect of Hinduism [0.3] and the caste system inhibited economic development 
compared [0.3] to the West [0.9] in China [0.4] he noted high er levels of 
evolution [1.5] but with Confucianism [0.5] this was one it was one that had er 
[0.2] lacked the activism [0.2] of Calvinism [2.6] now he comes into probably 
his greatest problems with Judaism [1.0] which [0.4] did er [0.8] er certainly 
introduce the tradition of ethical prophesy [0.6] er involved the propagation 
of a divine mission [1.0] but again [0.3] er it lacked the active missionary 
zeal of ethical prophesy that we find er [0.3] in er in Calvinism [2.0] okay [0.
4] now but but what he goes er he goes on from those world religions to set out 
then a [0.3] divide between [0.5] Calvinism [0.5] and [0.4] cath-, Catholicism 
[1.3] so we get to Christianity [0.4] Christianity is the one that's going to 
do it [0.3] but [0.3] it has to be Calvinist 
Christianity [0.7] and he notices there a sharp contrast between Catholic and 
Protestant attitudes and draws some broad generalizations from this [0.6] he 
argues [0.4] that the Reformation [0.4] er [1.2] er [0.3] the the Reformation 
[1.7] brought not the elimination of the church's control over everyday life [0.
4] but the substitution of a new form of control [1.2] he argued that [0.8] the 
Catholic Church was relatively lax in these controls and have er previously [0.
4] and er many of them were scarcely [0.2] perceptible [0.5] but [0.4] 
Calvinism [0.5] penetrated to all departments of private and public [0.2] 
public life [1.2] infinitely burdensome [0.4] earnestly enforced [1.2] was er 
would be today he he argues it would be for us t-, us today er er an absolutely 
unbearable form of ecclesiastical control [1.1] er [0.4] so this was som-, 
something that had become the strongest of of the fates [1.2] er [2.1] 
Catholicism in addition [0.3] was associated with magic and superstition [0.9] 
the cycle of sin repentance [0.2] atonement release [0.7] followed by renewed 
sin [0.3] and mediated by a priest [2.0] this was his er very much his his 
image of er [0.2] of of Catholicism [1.4] er [0.6] now [0.2] i have recently 
found it 
fascinating to see the way that this contrast between Protestantism [0.3] and 
capitalism [0.3] was played out in another contemporary [0.3] and highly 
influential text [0.6] Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks [0.4] so i just want to say 
something about this [0.4] Thomas Mann [0.2] like [0.2] er [0.4] er like er 
Weber [0.5] was born [0.3] into [0.3] a Hanseatic town [0.2] was born in in er 
[0.6] in Lübeck from a line of er prosperous and influential merchants [0.8] 
he was one of these sons who did not follow his er the path into er [0.5] er 
becoming a s-, a merchant in turn [0.4] the story that he describes in 
Buddenbrooks [0.4] is in [0.2] some ways er [0.3] not actually his own story 
but it follows that er [0.5] there there is ver-, [0.2] echoes of that right er 
right through the book [0.5] but he has an absolute fascinating er [0.5] er [0.
4] penetration [0.3] in the book of [0.3] mercantile society and bourgeois 
family life in these north German [0.3] Protestant towns [0.5] there's a 
wonderful character in the bo-, the b-, central character of the book i i 
indeed is a woman er the one of the sisters in the family [0.6] Antoni [0.3] an-
, ant-, or Antonia she would she would have been and she's called Toni [0.5] 
and [0.2] she goes off to Munich at one point and describes her 
impressions of the Catholics [0.4] this is er really er [0.4] really fa-, she 
she describes Munich she says [0.4] yes one has a g-, has to get used to a 
great deal it is a real foreign country [0.4] the strange currency and the 
difficulty of understanding the common people [0.5] i speak too fast to them 
and they seem to talk gibberish to me [0.5] and then the Catholicism [0.3] i 
hate it as you know i have no respect for it [0.6] er [0.6] as she goes on to 
dis-, er writes a very amusing letter home about her encounter with er [0.3] an 
archbishop or a [0.2] a pri-, er a high level priest [0.4] who er [0.6] gave me 
an ogling look out of the window like a lieutenant of the guard [1.1] [laugh] 
[0.4] er this is er your your er your protes-, she says to her mother your 
Protestant er missionaries [0.4] are certainly nothing compared to this rakish 
old prince of the church [0.6] er so there's this whole this is sort of echoes 
right right through this this er [0.3] this c-, er conflict between [0.4] er 
the the Protestants and the Catholics [0.4] and later Thomas Buddenbrook [0.5] 
er [0.4] who the is the the eldest son in his family and carries on er [0.3] 
the family firm [0.4] er this family merchant firm [0.4] he has er er [0.2] 
premonitions of his own downfall [0.4] and that [0.2] of the family firm and i 
this think it's very striking the way he writes this [0.4] and i want to also 
tell you this was published first in nineteen-o-two [0.5] before The Protestant 
Ethic [0.3] was published [0.3] so this is the kind of thing that is around at 
the time that er [0.5] that er that er the The Protestant Ethic was being 
written [0.6] er [0.5] he talks about being in a sort of de-, depressed mood he 
says it may pass [0.7] but just now i feel older than i am i have business 
cares [0.6] at the director's meeting of the Büchen railway yesterday Council 
Hegenstorm simply talked me down refuted my connecs-, contentions [0.4] nearly 
made me appear ridiculous [0.5] i feel that could not have happened to me 
before it was as though something had begun to slip [0.5] as though i hadn't 
the firm grip [0.2] i had on events [0.7] what is success [1.1] it is an inner 
an indescribable force [0.4] resourcefulness power of vision a consciousness 
that i am by my mere existence [0.3] exerting pressure on the movement of life 
above me [1.1] it is my belief in the adaptability of life to my own ends [0.4] 
fortune and success lie with ourselves [0.4] we must hold them firmly [0.2] 
deep within us [0.4] for as soon as something begins to slip [0.3] to relax to 
get tired within us [0.3] then everything without [0.3] us will reb-, [0.2] er 
rebel [0.3] and struggle [0.3] to withdraw from our influence [0.8] one thing 
follows another blow after blow and the man is finished [1.3] er [0.2] and i 
have often thought of a Turkish proverb [0.2] which says when the house is 
finished [0.3] death come [0.4] it doesn't need to be death [0.2] but the 
decline the falling off the beginning of the end [0.8] er [0.9] and [0.7] he 
carries this on but it's an extraordinary statement [0.3] of this er [0.9] the 
[0.2] imp-, er the importance ascribed to this inner force within ourselves [0.
5] which becomes in Weber's terms the the calling [0.6] well let's er [0.2] 
let's look at the calling [1.5] [sigh] [1.1] now the notion of the calling was 
introduced by the Reformation [0.7] and projected religious behaviour into the 
day to day world [1.5] it was a moral responsibility the moral responsibility 
of the Protestant [0.5] 
which was [0.2] accumulative responsibility [0.2] it was not a cycle [0.3] as 
in the Catholic conception of s-, of sin repentance [0.4] forgiveness [1.2] the 
idea of the calling was present in Luther's doctrines [0.3] it was more 
developed by the Puritan sects of in Calvinism Methodism [0.6] Pietism and 
Baptism [1.3] er it was most focused i-, in Calvinism [0.9] er [1.9] and it 
became obligatory under this er this syste-, this idea of the calling to regard 
oneself as chosen [1.9] a lack of certainty [1.4] was indicative in-, of 
insufficient faith [0.5] performance of good works in worldly activity was 
accepted as a medium whereby surety could be demonstrated [0.6] so success in a 
calling came to regar-, re-, be regarded as a sign of being one of the elect [0.
7] it's very much that that [0.2] religious conception [0.5] the accumulation 
of wealth was sanctioned it was okay [1.4] er [0.8] as long as it was combined 
with sober i-, [0.2] a sober industrious career and not with the expenditure on 
luxury [2.6] so Calvinism [0.2] er Weber [0.3] er believed had the dynamism to 
supply the moral energy the drive of capitalist 
entrepreneurs [4.2] now Weber found much to admire in Calvinism for its 
effectiveness [0.7] but he also found it deeply [0.2] problematic [0.4] so 
let's look at about at how he he writes about it 
nf0090: he he looks at [0.2] predestination [0.6] and [1.2] shows that [0.3] 
there were no magical means of attaining the grace of God [0.2] for those to 
whom God had decided to deny it [0.3] and you didn't know whether you were 
going to fall into that category [0.6] there were the harsh very harsh 
doctrines of absolute trans-, transcendentality of God [0.5] and the corruption 
of everything pertaining to the c-, to the flesh [0.8] an inner isolation of 
the individual [1.8] er so he f-, s-, you f-, see in this the the reason for 
the negative attitude of Puritanism to sensuous and emotional elements in 
culture and religion [1.0] er [4.3] and the God of Calvinism demanded of 
believers not single good works but a life of good works combined with a 
unified system [0.3] a consistent method of conduct as a whole [1.8] now for 
the Catholics by contrast there was absolution [0.3] a cycle of sin repentance 
atonement [0.5] release [1.2] er [1.1] 
what f-, happens with Calvinism is the idea of the necessity of proving one's 
faith in worldly activity [1.8] now if we turn to er [1.0] er [0.4] turn [0.4] 
er just got another [4.0] turn further to look at er asceticism [0.3] which is 
an aspect of of er Calvinism [2.2] now Weber pursues these themes of the 
relentless the all pervasive character of Calvinism [0.7] er he talks about the 
waste of time being the first and deadliest sin [1.3] human life [0.2] 
infinitely short and precious [1.1] er it's very precious to make w-, sure of 
one's own election [1.0] a loss of time would be caused through sociability 
idle talk luxury [0.9] in the Puritan view [0.3] we see the providential 
character of the the play of private economic interest taking on a new emphasis 
[0.5] the p-, and there's this sort of the whole er providentialism of of the 
the system [0.7] er [2.2] the the providential purpose of the division of 
labour was to be known by its fruits [0.9] and again the asceticism [0.6] is 
very er er an ascetic er [0.3] er discipline [0.6] something that is er [1.5] 
er an enemy to er hostility to sport to recreation to spontaneous 
pleasure [2.0] er [0.3] all of these things would lead away from [0.4] er work 
[0.5] towards er the calling [4.8] er [0.5] and again [0.3] if you look at er 
some of the the further literature on this he he finds in the [0.7] er [0.3] 
the fine h-, a-, fine arts a hatred of anything that smacked of superstition so 
critique of the theatre not no participation in the theatre [0.9] er [0.8] it's 
very interesting that in er [0.2] Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks the second son who 
[0.2] goes off the rails [0.4] is always going off to the theatre [0.9] it's er 
[0.7] he's er [0.2] that's er [0.4] the the sort of negative er side of er [0.
5] er er the er the the very negative attitudes towards of of Calvinism to er 
[0.4] to this [0.5] okay [0.4] now [0.7] er if we look at the one of the things 
that that comes up here is what about the idea of possessions [2.1] er [1.6] it 
allowed this this whole ethos allowed for the accumulation of possessions [0.6] 
but if you look to the idea of a man's duty to his possessions [0.4] er [0.4] 
with Calvinism he suborts him-, bo-, subordinates himself as the obedient 
steward [1.0] a steward of these possessions a steward [0.4] er or an 
acquisitive er o-, of an acquisitive machine it was [0.3] the greater the 
possessions [0.6] he had [0.4] the heavier the feeling of [0.2] er 
responsibility for them [3.0] er [1.0] so we see this sort of increase attempt 
to increase the glory of God and so increasing these possessions by [0.4] re-, 
er restless effort [1.3] er but [0.2] worldly pr-, er Protestant er [0.2] 
asceticism acted against the spontaneous enjoyment [0.2] of er [0.3] 
possessions [1.0] so [0.5] the possessions that were there they were not to be 
luxuries [0.5] restricted consumption o-, of luxuries [2.6] er [0.7] okay [2.4] 
now Weber's Calvinist [0.6] er [0.6] at the end of the day [0.8] couldn't bring 
himself [0.3] to accept the presumption of salvation [1.1] and so no matter how 
hard he worked [0.6] how er [1.6] how f-, er fa-, great his accumulation of 
wealth was [0.3] how successful a businessman he was [0.4] how important a 
member of the business community or a s-, political community he was [0.6] er 
[0.6] he suffered the anguish [0.5] that only rational world activity [0.2] can 
mollify [0.4] and er [0.4] would have t-, had no er [0.3] er [0.4] er no sense 
that [0.5] he w-, had succeeded in becoming er t-, [0.4] becoming one of the 
elect er [0.2] succeeded i-, in reaching God [0.9] and so [1.5] [sigh] [1.1] er 
we have [1.0] material goods [0.7] then cr-, gaining [0.4] an increasing 
an inecexorable power [0.2] over the lives of men [0.9] and this is where Weber 
the text seems to be leading [0.3] in a very i mean it's very interesting 
direction for the text sort of just at this juncture [0.4] because it looks [0.
3] as you're reading this text [0.3] that Weber [0.5] is er [0.5] praising [0.
3] this great cal-, you know this great entrepreneurial figure with this sort 
of er the sense of the calling [0.5] the er [0.4] this [0.6] Calvinist er [0.3] 
impetus to work [0.6] but he shows [0.3] here [0.7] just how much power [0.5] 
these possess-, the material possessions the the success in economic life 
starts to take over [0.4] his whole entire er self [0.8] er [1.5] so victoriou-,
victorious capitalism he argues rests on mechanical foundations [0.5] and er 
[0.6] this is where i just want to er [0.6] read you thi-, this passage because 
this is where the whole thing [0.4] it's just you got to get to the end and you 
got to read the whole thing and get to the end [0.4] 'cause [0.7] he starts to 
talk about [0.3] er the iron cage of capitalism [0.4] that's where it all ends 
up [0.5] where er [0.6] everything is er we have this sort of being entirely 
controlled by this effort to work [0.3] effort to to reach God through through 
this this kind of material success [0.4] er [0.3] and the possessions actually 
taking a total grip [0.3] on on hi-, er his soul [0.5] and he says er [0.7] he 
says here [0.7] er [0.5] [3.9] since ascetic-, er asceticism [0.5] er [1.9] 
undertook to remodel the world and work out its ideals in the world [0.5] er 
material goods have gained an increasing and finally an ec-, inexorable power 
over the lives of men [0.4] as at no previous period of history [1.6] er he 
goes back [0.3] in a in a previous paras-, he t-, he talks about [0.4] the the 
early er some of the earlier er [0.3] writers on this Baxter writing [0.3] that 
the care for external goods should only lie in the soldiers of the saint like a 
light cloak which can be thrown aside at any moment [0.5] but Weber says [0.3] 
but fate decreed the cloak should become an iron cage [1.6] today the spirit of 
re-, religious asceticism where there finally who knows has escaped from the 
cage [0.3] but victorious capitalism [0.3] since it rests on mechanical 
foundations [0.3] needs its support no longer [0.7] er [2.0] the rosy blush of 
its laughing air the Enlightenment 
seems to be irretrievably fading and the idea of duty and one's cal-, calling 
[0.4] prowls about in our lives like the dos-, ghost of dead religious beliefs 
[0.9] er where the fulfilment of the calling cannot directly be related to the 
highest spiritual and cultural values [0.5] or when on the other hand it need 
not be felt [0.2] simply as economic compulsion [0.3] the individual abandons 
the attempt [0.2] to justify it [0.6] and so does it without knowing [0.3] why 
[1.2] er [0.3] so there's where he ends up [0.3] in the text [0.7] who will 
live in this cage in the future [2.5] er [0.3] specialists without spirits 
sensualists without heart [0.5] this nullity imagines it has attained a level 
of civilization never before achieved [1.0] so that's where he he gets us to [0.
6] er [1.4] you can ask [0.2] to what extent was this an endorsement of the The 
Protestant Ethic [0.3] or its ultimate critique [1.4] er [0.9] now we er [0.5] 
have er [0.2] there's a n-, a whole er series of are-, areas in which we could 
take this text [0.4] there's a number of issues that arose immediately the er 
[0.5] The Protestant Ethic [0.2] was set up [0.3] there were a lot of critiques 
[0.3] 
made of it by a whole series of er [0.3] writers [0.2] in inside and outside 
Germany at the time [0.4] it has become [0.3] a subject of intense debate about 
its meaning and about er [0.5] the areas where Weber went wrong et cetera [0.6] 
er [0.4] and [0.2] these covered [0.3] a whole series of er of topics such as 
his [0.5] er definition of er different relid-, er what what he said wha-, what 
he said characterized various religions [0.4] er his characterizations of the 
differences between eastern and western [0.4] er countries [0.4] er his 
differences that he set out [0.3] between Calvinism and er Catholicism [0.4] 
what he had to say about Judaism [0.5] these are a whole series of issues where 
there [0.3] was a lot of er dispute and debate [0.3] and er [1.4] you will find 
[0.3] that discussion [0.5] carried on at length in the articles about The 
Protestant Ethic [0.3] that that are on your reading list [0.6] er [3.1] and [0.
8] though er [2.0] okay [1.7] i i think that that's er i th-, i'll just er take 
it to there i think you will see the disputes ranging over these the-, these 
areas and take them up in your text [0.5] er [0.7] and y-, and in your seminar 
[0.7] okay er [0.3] so i'll stop there