• Latest
  • Trending

Max Weber was wrong!

November 10, 2017
Mars

Mars bar plastic wrapper swapped for paper

May 29, 2023
Sri Lanka – Bangladesh Test Match live

How much will Sri Lanka get from ICC for test championship?

May 29, 2023
Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Erdogan wins Turkish election, extending rule to third decade

May 29, 2023
Exchange Rate

Foreign Currency Official Exchange Rates from Central Bank of Sri Lanka

May 29, 2023
New Congress government restoring communal balance in Karnataka

New Congress government restoring communal balance in Karnataka

May 29, 2023
Gold. Image credits - Jingming Pan / Unsplash

Gold prices drop further in Sri Lanka

May 29, 2023
India in global competition to woo Pacific islands

India in global competition to woo Pacific islands

May 29, 2023
Factum Perspective: Thai elections – A challenge to the military

Factum Perspective: Thai elections – A challenge to the military

May 28, 2023
Using an ancient scepter to win over Tamil Nadu

Using an ancient scepter to win over Tamil Nadu

May 28, 2023
Siddharamaiah: The new face of Karnataka

Siddharamaiah: The new face of Karnataka

May 28, 2023
Bandaranaike MemoriaI International Conference Hall cemented Sino-Lankan ties

Bandaranaike MemoriaI International Conference Hall cemented Sino-Lankan ties

May 28, 2023
Lankan President’s Japan visit will have a salutary effect on relationship

Lankan President’s Japan visit will have a salutary effect on relationship

May 28, 2023
  • About Us
  • Advertisements
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
Monday, May 29, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NewsIn.Asia
  • Home
  • Around South Asia
    • All
    • Afghanistan
    • Bangladesh
    • Bhutan
    • China
    • India
    • Maldives
    • Myanmar
    • Nepal
    • Pakistan
    • Sri Lanka
    Sri Lanka – Bangladesh Test Match live

    How much will Sri Lanka get from ICC for test championship?

    Exchange Rate

    Foreign Currency Official Exchange Rates from Central Bank of Sri Lanka

    New Congress government restoring communal balance in Karnataka

    New Congress government restoring communal balance in Karnataka

    Gold. Image credits - Jingming Pan / Unsplash

    Gold prices drop further in Sri Lanka

    India in global competition to woo Pacific islands

    India in global competition to woo Pacific islands

    Using an ancient scepter to win over Tamil Nadu

    Using an ancient scepter to win over Tamil Nadu

    Siddharamaiah: The new face of Karnataka

    Siddharamaiah: The new face of Karnataka

    Bandaranaike MemoriaI International Conference Hall cemented Sino-Lankan ties

    Bandaranaike MemoriaI International Conference Hall cemented Sino-Lankan ties

    Lankan President’s Japan visit will have a salutary effect on relationship

    Lankan President’s Japan visit will have a salutary effect on relationship

  • World
    • All
    • Japan
    • Russia
    • United Kingdom
    • United States
    Mars

    Mars bar plastic wrapper swapped for paper

    Recep Tayyip Erdogan

    Erdogan wins Turkish election, extending rule to third decade

    Lankan President’s Japan visit will have a salutary effect on relationship

    Lankan President’s Japan visit will have a salutary effect on relationship

    Joe Biden’s advisers say he doesn’t want to drag Pacific allies into ‘headlong clash’ between US and China

    Joe Biden’s advisers say he doesn’t want to drag Pacific allies into ‘headlong clash’ between US and China

    Cristiano Ronaldo

    Cristiano Ronaldo’s ‘Sajdah’ goal celebration goes viral

    US dollar notes

    ‘The mother of all crises.’ A US debt default would ricochet around the world

    Tsunami

    Scientists warn climate crisis could trigger giant tsunamis from Antarctica

    Emirates

    All Emirates passengers can now avail of free Wi-Fi connectivity onboard

    Ranil Wickremesinghe with Fumio Kishida

    President apologizes to Japanese Government over the termination of LRT project

  • Business
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Entertainment
    • All
    • Books
    • Gaming
    • Movie
    • Music
    • Series
    Samahan

    Amitabh Bachchan expresses confidence for Sri Lankan herbal drink Samahan

    ‘Money Back Guarantee’ to mark cinematic debut of cricketing legend Wasim Akram and wife Shaniera

    ‘Money Back Guarantee’ to mark cinematic debut of cricketing legend Wasim Akram and wife Shaniera

    The gran who couldn’t: Indu Balachandran’s latest book is for readers of all ages

    The gran who couldn’t: Indu Balachandran’s latest book is for readers of all ages

    The Weeknd

    The Weeknd is the world’s most popular artist, Guinness World Records says

    Naatu Naatu has millions of views on YouTube and is a viral sensation over social media

    Watch: Oscar winning song Naatu Naatu

    Naatu Naatu has millions of views on YouTube and is a viral sensation over social media

    Indian song ‘Naatu Naatu’ from ‘RRR’ wins Oscar award for best song

    Naatu Naatu has millions of views on YouTube and is a viral sensation over social media

    Naatu Naatu: The RRR song primed for Oscar history

    Keanu Reeves

    11 of the best films to watch in March

    Netflix. Image credits - Souvik Banerjee @rswebsols / Unsplash

    Netflix cuts prices for subscribers in more than 30 countries

  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health
    • Science
    • Travel
    Mars

    Mars bar plastic wrapper swapped for paper

    Emirates

    All Emirates passengers can now avail of free Wi-Fi connectivity onboard

    Exercise. Image credits - Victor Freitas @victorfreitas / Unsplash

    5 healthy habits that are easy to add to your day

    Global concern over babies born too soon

    Global concern over babies born too soon

    Nigerian chef Hilda Effiong Bassey

    Nigerian chef cooks for 100 hours in world record attempt

    Batik Air

    Batik Air reinstates daily services between Colombo and Kuala Lumpur

    Confucius tells us how to set ourselves free with ritual

    Confucius tells us how to set ourselves free with ritual

    Sri Lankans enjoy a walk in the beach

    My trip to Sri Lanka restored faith in fellow humans: Australian tourist

    The flavours of Sri Lanka

    The flavours of Sri Lanka

    The Issue of same-sex marriage reaches a critical juncture in India

    The Issue of same-sex marriage reaches a critical juncture in India

    Trending Tags

    • Golden Globes
    • Mr. Robot
    • MotoGP 2017
    • Climate Change
    • Flat Earth
  • Tech
    Whatsapp

    WhatsApp introduces new feature to edit sent messages

    WhatsApp

    WhatsApp will allow users to lock and hide conversations

    Whatsapp. Image credits - AARN GIRI / Unsplash

    WhatsApp announces multi-device feature to support more than one phone

    Apple store in Mumbai

    Apple says ‘Hello Mumbai’ at first India store launch

    WhatsApp

    WhatsApp to introduce five new features in 2023 

    OpenAI has created ChatGPT, a start-up focused on artificial intelligence and its potential use cases. (Image source: OpenAI)

    ChatGPT banned in Italy over privacy concerns

    Trending Tags

    • Sillicon Valley
    • Climate Change
    • Election Results
    • Flat Earth
    • Golden Globes
    • MotoGP 2017
    • Mr. Robot
  • Coronavirus
  • Videos
  • Home
  • Around South Asia
    • All
    • Afghanistan
    • Bangladesh
    • Bhutan
    • China
    • India
    • Maldives
    • Myanmar
    • Nepal
    • Pakistan
    • Sri Lanka
    Sri Lanka – Bangladesh Test Match live

    How much will Sri Lanka get from ICC for test championship?

    Exchange Rate

    Foreign Currency Official Exchange Rates from Central Bank of Sri Lanka

    New Congress government restoring communal balance in Karnataka

    New Congress government restoring communal balance in Karnataka

    Gold. Image credits - Jingming Pan / Unsplash

    Gold prices drop further in Sri Lanka

    India in global competition to woo Pacific islands

    India in global competition to woo Pacific islands

    Using an ancient scepter to win over Tamil Nadu

    Using an ancient scepter to win over Tamil Nadu

    Siddharamaiah: The new face of Karnataka

    Siddharamaiah: The new face of Karnataka

    Bandaranaike MemoriaI International Conference Hall cemented Sino-Lankan ties

    Bandaranaike MemoriaI International Conference Hall cemented Sino-Lankan ties

    Lankan President’s Japan visit will have a salutary effect on relationship

    Lankan President’s Japan visit will have a salutary effect on relationship

  • World
    • All
    • Japan
    • Russia
    • United Kingdom
    • United States
    Mars

    Mars bar plastic wrapper swapped for paper

    Recep Tayyip Erdogan

    Erdogan wins Turkish election, extending rule to third decade

    Lankan President’s Japan visit will have a salutary effect on relationship

    Lankan President’s Japan visit will have a salutary effect on relationship

    Joe Biden’s advisers say he doesn’t want to drag Pacific allies into ‘headlong clash’ between US and China

    Joe Biden’s advisers say he doesn’t want to drag Pacific allies into ‘headlong clash’ between US and China

    Cristiano Ronaldo

    Cristiano Ronaldo’s ‘Sajdah’ goal celebration goes viral

    US dollar notes

    ‘The mother of all crises.’ A US debt default would ricochet around the world

    Tsunami

    Scientists warn climate crisis could trigger giant tsunamis from Antarctica

    Emirates

    All Emirates passengers can now avail of free Wi-Fi connectivity onboard

    Ranil Wickremesinghe with Fumio Kishida

    President apologizes to Japanese Government over the termination of LRT project

  • Business
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Entertainment
    • All
    • Books
    • Gaming
    • Movie
    • Music
    • Series
    Samahan

    Amitabh Bachchan expresses confidence for Sri Lankan herbal drink Samahan

    ‘Money Back Guarantee’ to mark cinematic debut of cricketing legend Wasim Akram and wife Shaniera

    ‘Money Back Guarantee’ to mark cinematic debut of cricketing legend Wasim Akram and wife Shaniera

    The gran who couldn’t: Indu Balachandran’s latest book is for readers of all ages

    The gran who couldn’t: Indu Balachandran’s latest book is for readers of all ages

    The Weeknd

    The Weeknd is the world’s most popular artist, Guinness World Records says

    Naatu Naatu has millions of views on YouTube and is a viral sensation over social media

    Watch: Oscar winning song Naatu Naatu

    Naatu Naatu has millions of views on YouTube and is a viral sensation over social media

    Indian song ‘Naatu Naatu’ from ‘RRR’ wins Oscar award for best song

    Naatu Naatu has millions of views on YouTube and is a viral sensation over social media

    Naatu Naatu: The RRR song primed for Oscar history

    Keanu Reeves

    11 of the best films to watch in March

    Netflix. Image credits - Souvik Banerjee @rswebsols / Unsplash

    Netflix cuts prices for subscribers in more than 30 countries

  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health
    • Science
    • Travel
    Mars

    Mars bar plastic wrapper swapped for paper

    Emirates

    All Emirates passengers can now avail of free Wi-Fi connectivity onboard

    Exercise. Image credits - Victor Freitas @victorfreitas / Unsplash

    5 healthy habits that are easy to add to your day

    Global concern over babies born too soon

    Global concern over babies born too soon

    Nigerian chef Hilda Effiong Bassey

    Nigerian chef cooks for 100 hours in world record attempt

    Batik Air

    Batik Air reinstates daily services between Colombo and Kuala Lumpur

    Confucius tells us how to set ourselves free with ritual

    Confucius tells us how to set ourselves free with ritual

    Sri Lankans enjoy a walk in the beach

    My trip to Sri Lanka restored faith in fellow humans: Australian tourist

    The flavours of Sri Lanka

    The flavours of Sri Lanka

    The Issue of same-sex marriage reaches a critical juncture in India

    The Issue of same-sex marriage reaches a critical juncture in India

    Trending Tags

    • Golden Globes
    • Mr. Robot
    • MotoGP 2017
    • Climate Change
    • Flat Earth
  • Tech
    Whatsapp

    WhatsApp introduces new feature to edit sent messages

    WhatsApp

    WhatsApp will allow users to lock and hide conversations

    Whatsapp. Image credits - AARN GIRI / Unsplash

    WhatsApp announces multi-device feature to support more than one phone

    Apple store in Mumbai

    Apple says ‘Hello Mumbai’ at first India store launch

    WhatsApp

    WhatsApp to introduce five new features in 2023 

    OpenAI has created ChatGPT, a start-up focused on artificial intelligence and its potential use cases. (Image source: OpenAI)

    ChatGPT banned in Italy over privacy concerns

    Trending Tags

    • Sillicon Valley
    • Climate Change
    • Election Results
    • Flat Earth
    • Golden Globes
    • MotoGP 2017
    • Mr. Robot
  • Coronavirus
  • Videos
NewsIn.Asia
No Result
View All Result
Home Around The World

Max Weber was wrong!

admin by admin
November 10, 2017
in Around The World, Top Story
Reading Time: 5 mins read
10 1
A A
Share on WhatsApp

By Prof.Deirdre McCloskey/Reason .com

Max Weber, the north German economist, proud reserve officer in the Kaiser’s army, literal dueler with academic opponents, and co-founder of modern sociology, sits on every college reading list for his 1905 book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

If you didn’t read it in college, it’s time to turn off the TV, Google it, and do so. It’s a stunning performance, one of my top 100 nonfiction books of the 20th century. The book is brilliant, readable, short. (By the way, henceforth you should exhibit your sophistication by pronouncing his name correctly. It’s “VAY-ber,” not like the “WEB-er” hamburger grill you’ve just put away for the year. You get extra points for saying “Max” in echt deutsch: “Maahx,” not like “Mad Max.”)

ADVERTISEMENT

Others of the stunning 100 include Joseph Schumpeter’s Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942), John Maynard Keynes’ The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936), Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949), and Edward Tufte’s The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (1983). If you don’t know such books, you don’t know much, and you really need to get going.

But that a book is “great” does not mean it is correct, or is to be taken as good history or good economics or good theology. Marx’s Das Kapital is indubitably a great book, one of the very greatest of the 19th century, as I say to annoyed friends of libertarian or conservative bent. But then I say to my left-wing friends, annoying them too, that Marx was wrong on almost every point of economics, history, and politics. Which is why I haven’t got any friends.

So what’s wrong with Weber’s argument? First we need the argument. (Reading this summary is not an excuse for skipping the actual book.) Weber thinks that there is such a thing as, to use the Marxist word, modern “capitalism,” originating in the 16th century. By capitalism he means, as the name implies, the focused accumulation of capital in masses. The focused accumulation, he says, depends on ample saving and hard work, characteristic of the Protestant north Germans as against the lazy, Catholic Bavarians.

How to get the ample saving and hard work? Spirit, Geist, runs things, he says (and I do too). He claims that the doctrine of salvation put forward by John Calvin emerged as the new spirit’s engine. People saved and worked because they wanted to prove to themselves that they were in fact among the few “elect,” predestined since the beginning by an omniscient God to be saved from hell’s fire.

It is a theory about psychology, applicable Weber claimed even to the world-enjoying descendants of Calvinists, such as our own Benjamin Franklin. Weber took the comical speech Franklin wrote for Poor Richard’s Almanac in the person of wise Father Abraham—”Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”—to be exactly what Franklin believed. No one lacking a sense of humor should venture on interpreting Franklin. (Weber’s nephew said once that a sense of humor was the main characteristic lacking in his beloved Uncle Max.)

Weber’s theory continues to acquire converts, namely, anyone who reads the book without considerable knowledge of theology, economics, or history. The union of a spiritual spark with materialist kindling utterly charms the first reader. But almost everyone who has looked seriously into the evidence behind Weber’s theory finds it lacking.

For an economic example, it is not true that accumulation caused the modern Great Enrichment. In the absence of innovation, as Keynes pointed out, mere accumulation would swiftly reach diminishing returns. It could hardly, therefore, explain an enrichment since 1800 in places like Germany and the U.S. and Japan of 3,000 percent in the goods and services made and earned by the poorest among us.

Market-tested betterments, not the mere investment for exploiting them, explain our riches. Electricity. Autos, soon self-driving. Large living quarters. Doubled life expectancy. Better education in great books.

Now Weber was a very learned and intelligent scholar. After all, he gave us the true definition of a government, namely, a monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory. It is a definition as full and accurate as it is sadistically useful for torturing our mild social democratic friends in Sweden or Massachusetts, who like to believe that the government is a festival of kindly collectivism, sort of like a loving family.

Weber wisely understood as well that greed was not invented in the 16th century, which is a persistent if silly theory about markets. He wrote in The Protestant Ethic that “it should be taught in the kindergarten of cultural history that this naive idea [about] capitalism must be given up once and for all.” Greed “has been common to all sorts and conditions of men at all times and in all countries of the earth.”

And Weber was spot on in saying that “spirit” runs the show. But oddly for the founder of modern sociology, he located the spirit in individual, terrified, Calvinist psychology, not out in society. The psychological hypothesis has been taken up, not very successfully, in studies of individual entrepreneurship.

Prof.Deirdre McCloskey

What actually changed between the age of Shakespeare and the age of Jane Austen was not individual psychology but a spirit of social approval for capitalist acts among consenting adults. Entrepreneurship at the psychological level probably exists in all human groups—in, say, one in 10 or so of the people. Look at your acquaintance who fearlessly opened a new hairdressing salon, or your college classmate who jumped on the improvement of the internet. You can make a case, as George Gilder does in his 2009 book The Israel Test, that the Jews of Eastern Europe are often unusually good at initiating trade-tested betterments. Could be. Looks like it, and for the benefit of us all, as against the lush growth of anti-Semitism these days. But in the coming world we will enjoy the benefits brought by scores of such unusually entrepreneurial groups, in Africa and Asia and Latin America. It’s not psychology. It’s sociology and law.

So Weber was mistaken. But his is still a great book. Culture, wrote the Victorian critic Matthew Arnold, “is a study of perfection [which] seeks to do away with classes; to make the best that has been thought and known in the world current everywhere.” Even the best may be found after a while to be mistaken.

Hobbes’ Leviathan is mistaken, claiming centrally that “Covenants, without the sword, are but words, and of no strength to secure a man.” Wrong, wrong, wrong. Geist expressed in words does indeed bind and secure people. But Michael Oakeshott properly classed Leviathan as the greatest (and “perhaps the only”) work of English political philosophy.

Another Victorian, a witty atheist, used to suggest that every church door have a large sign declaring “Important if true.” The Protestant Ethic is important though false, an instance of imperfect perfection.

(Deirdre McCloskey is emerita professor of economics, history, English, and communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the author most recently of Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World)

(The featured image at the top is that of Max Weber)  

Related Posts

Mars
Around The World

Mars bar plastic wrapper swapped for paper

May 29, 2023
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Around The World

Erdogan wins Turkish election, extending rule to third decade

May 29, 2023
New Congress government restoring communal balance in Karnataka
Communities

New Congress government restoring communal balance in Karnataka

May 29, 2023
India in global competition to woo Pacific islands
China

India in global competition to woo Pacific islands

May 29, 2023
Factum Perspective: Thai elections – A challenge to the military
Around The World

Factum Perspective: Thai elections – A challenge to the military

May 28, 2023
Using an ancient scepter to win over Tamil Nadu
India

Using an ancient scepter to win over Tamil Nadu

May 28, 2023
  • Electricity

    Power cut schedule for today in Sri Lanka: Uninterrupted power supply

    60240 shares
    Share 24118 Tweet 15051
  • Registration open for National Fuel Pass

    6641 shares
    Share 2694 Tweet 1645
  • Foreign Currency Official Exchange Rates from Central Bank of Sri Lanka

    1849 shares
    Share 746 Tweet 460
  • WATCH : Yohani’s first live performance in India

    790 shares
    Share 329 Tweet 192
  • Power interruption schedule released: Check your area power cut time

    742 shares
    Share 320 Tweet 176
  • About Us
  • Advertisements
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact

© 2022 All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Around South Asia
    • Afghanistan
    • Bangladesh
    • Bhutan
    • China
    • India
    • Maldives
    • Myanmar
    • Nepal
    • Pakistan
    • Sri Lanka
  • Around The World
  • Breaking News
  • Business
    • Exchange
  • Climate Change
  • Governance
    • Crime
    • Diplomacy
    • Defense
    • Human Rights
    • Politics
    • Strategic Affairs
  • Lifestyle
    • Books
    • Entertainment
      • Arts
      • Cinema
      • Gaming
      • Music
      • Movie
      • Series
      • TV
    • Health
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Travel
  • Culture
    • Ethnicity
    • Gender
  • Development news
  • Economy
  • Education
  • Environment
  • Coronavirus
  • History
  • National
  • Offbeat
    • Media
    • Music and arts across South Asia
  • Recommended
    • Headlines
    • Highlights
    • Top Picture
    • Top Story
  • Religion
  • Science
  • Sports
    • Football
    • Cricket
      • LPL
      • IPL
    • Tennis
    • Formula 1
    • NBA
  • Tech
    • Instagram
  • United Nations
  • Weather
  • World
    • Japan
    • Russia
    • United States
  • Videos

© 2022 All rights reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

eskisehir escort -

https://www.vudols.com/

- Sağlık Personeli - mersin escort - Antalya korsan taksi -
ip booter