The Calvinist Work Ethic of "Living to Work" and the Rise of Capitalism by Max Weber Essay

The Capitalist Future A Consequence of Calvinist Annunciation Anukool Lakhina ID 203, Lindholm Question 3 October 10th, 1996In his work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weberpredicts that the future will be a world of "mechanized perfection" devoid of"religious and ethical meaning." In this world modern capitalism becomes a selfsustaining system no longer needing the Calvinist religious impetus that hadinspired the work ethic. Weber argues that the future will be a capitalisticsociety, where the proletariat and the bourgeoisie alike, will not be driven byreligious motivation, but instead by a constant struggle to benefit from thesystem. He reasons that this future of the capitalist society is a directconsequence of the teachings of Calvinism. The Calvinist work ethic of 'livingto work' forms the core of modern capitalism. This ethic originated from theCalvinist doctrine of predestination and the notion of a transcendental God.Predestination decrees that God has already picked out who those "predestinedinto everlasting life" (100) and those "foreordained to everlasting death"(100). Calvinists also believe that God, a distant "grand conception" (164) whois "beyond all human comprehension," (164) is unreachable. Both these beliefstogether eliminated any possibility of appeasing God through service orsacrifice. The answer to the question whether believers were the chosen or thedamned could thus neither be influenced nor known. If, however, one turned hiswork into a 'calling,' restricting any desire to wasteful pleasure, he couldexperience a feeling of assurance that he is indeed a member of the Elect.Calvinism preached this ascetic ethic of hard work and complete absence offrivolous waste of money and time. As a result, the work ethic of thepopulation shifted from 'working to live' to 'living to work.' Traditionalcapitalism which relied on the "greedy maximization of profit in a one-shotenterprise," (14) became the rational modern capitalism, a continuous cycleinvolving the constant "productive investment of capital." (172) The Calvinistteachings demanded honest dealings in business, steady production and sales, andcontinuous savings...

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