ANTHRO 41A Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Indulgence, Free Rider Problem, Homo Economicus

• School: UC-Irvine
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTHRO 41A
• Professor: Tom Douglas

Document Summary

Max weber the protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism abbreviations: mwc = modern, western capitalism. Though knowledge and observation of great refinement have existed elsewhere, only in the west has rationalization in science, law and culture developed to such a great degree. Nowhere else does this exist to such a degree as it does in the west. The most fateful force in modern life is capitalism. The impulse to acquisition has existed always and everywhere and has in itself nothing to do with capitalism. Capitalism is the pursuit of profit, and forever renewed profit, by means of continuous, rational, capitalistic enterprise. This enterprise must be continuous, because in a capitalistic society, anyone who did not take advantage of opportunities for profit-making would be doomed to extinction. A capitalistic economic action rests on the expectation of profit by the utilization of opportunities for exchange, on (formally) peaceful chances for profit.