Reconsidering Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

摘要

Since the initial publication of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (henceforth TPE) in 1905, Max Weber's arguments have been subjected to extensive debate concerning both the validity of the work's method and the accuracy of its substantive theses.1 It has been both championed as an exemplary text of sociological analysis and condemned as inaccurate and indeed even subversive; its concepts have found application across a wide variety of contexts outside of Weber's original lines of inquiry; and it continues to be taught in universities (with a greater or lesser extent of fidelity to the various caveats and qualifications Weber included in his argument). TPFs prominence is arguably sufficient to often overshadow the remainder of Weber's corpus.