Weber and the "Spirit"

Max Weber formulates a compelling concept in his description and characterization of the "spirit" of capitalism and its religious roots. The structure of his written work is very effective in flushing out the idea of Protestant asceticism and its role in inspiring the areligious "spirit" of capitalism. Within the first few pages of the work, Weber displays a list financial maxims of Benjamin Franklin in order to establish a cursory meaning and understanding of the "spirit." This description is very successful in capturing the general sentiments that Weber recognizes as socially inherent to capitalistic systems. Though Franklin's excerpts are helpful in comprehending Weber's intentions, the argument of the existence of a "spirit" of capitalism is itself subject to criticism. As noted earlier, the structural organization of The Protestant Ethic and the "Spirit" of Capitalism serves in great part to further the strength of Weber's argument. By exhibiting the sentiments Franklin very early within the work Weber imbues the idea of a "spirit" with life and a semi-concrete definition from a well known public figure. However, after reading further into this work the very conceptual existence of a "spirit" of capitalism becomes a forgone conclusion within Weber's account of the social and religious histories of Protestantism. Rather than utilizing more space for evidencing in multiple social and religious settings the existence of a widely held "spirit" of capitalism, this work quickly moves into how that "spirit" was formed and disseminated. This gives Weber's work a sense of inevitability as the reader nears the end of his exposition. In the last few pages of the chapter on asceticism, conclusions are formed in nicely wrapped direct social correlations between religious philosophical beliefs and the secular formation of the "spirit" of capitalism. All of this is very effective in convincing the reader of Weber's assertions about the origins and nature of the "spirit", however, a closer look is needed to establish whether there is requisite evidence for this characterization of the social and religious causes of capitalism. Although Weber recognizes and argues that he is merely presenting a partial motivational force for the rise of capitalism, the establishment of a "spirit" requires more analysis of social and material expression of rising capitalist populations.