EURO ST 10 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Protestant Work Ethic, Economic Determinism, Class Conflict
Document Summary
It is our duty to work, even though our works don"t help toward salvation. We work to subject our bodily desires. We work for the sake of work. A special and paradoxical dynamic: we can"t do anything for salvation, but want a sign that we are saved. And thus, given the great despair we have, we are driven to work, work, work in the hope that it will be a sign that we are worthy of riches . How ideas from the 16th century which have nothing to do explicitly with the economy nonetheless can create a culture ripe for capitalism. Weber"s approach goes to the heart of what we"re investigating in this course: how apparently distant historical ideas and phenomena helped shape our modern world. There"s a good reason to learn about things like lutheran theology, the holy roman empire, the thirty years war. Focused on interpretive approaches, not just empirical and quantitative.
