“Introduction” in “Classical Sociological Theory and Foundations of American Sociology”

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Part 1

“Time is money.” – Benjamin Franklin

NOTE ON SOURCE: These passages are from Weber’s most known and influential work, first published in German in 1905 as Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus. It was first translated into English by the sociologist Talcott Parsons and published in 1930 as The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Allen and Unwin. Parsons‘ translation was reprinted in 1958 by Scribner’s. This translation is probably the one most English-speaking sociologists have read. In 2002, Penguin published a new translation by Baehr and Wells, a translation that offered a shell as hard as steel in place of Parsons‘ well-known Iron Cage. Although this translations is more literal, your selection below uses the more widely-known phrasing of Parsons. Otherwise, readers will find much that is different from Parsons translation, which tends to be somewhat creative at times.

Introduction – Why this is important and what to look for

In this book, Weber offers a culturalist (or idealist) interpretation of history, counter to the historical materialist approach taken by Marx. In an ingenious argument, he demonstrates how particular beliefs (in this case, beliefs associated with some strains of the Protestant religion) led to particular kinds of conduct (the “work ethic” and disposition to save and invest rather than spend) which eventually helped produce capitalism as we know it today. This is not a book about religion, but rather a book that uses religion and religious ideas as an example of how change happens, through a chain of unintended consequences. It is also a book about people as agents, bearing culture and ideas with them into new settings and circumstances. The entire book is less than 100 pages (not including footnotes). What you have here is a much-abridged form of the first of two parts.

Part 1: The Problem