According to Weber, industrial capitalism emerged in the west though the convergence of a number of key factors. Capitalism itself had existed in areas of the world prior to the west and had even shared some of the same key factors. For instance, capitalist enterprises were found to have developed in places like China, and Egypt yet they failed to become perpetual and broke down into a series of smaller enterprises. One could argue that they lacked the union of Weber's proposed factors, as well as a social carries to guide the required moral framework on a grand scale. According to Weber the main factors which gave rise to industrial capitalism in the west were the convergence of accounting practices, separation of the home from work, formally free wage labor, predictable law, and distinctive social carriers.
[...] He felt that after overproduction of commodities took place workers would realize the level of inequality in society and revolt. Therefore Marx believed that the ruling class produced its own grave diggers and that their fall and the victory of the working class is inevitable in capitalism (Bailey and Gayle, 2003). In contrast to Marx, Weber had more hope for the human condition and did believe that a society could transcend capitalism. Weber suggested that rationalization of ideal types could be used to explain the development of modern capitalism. His explanation of puritan ideals being the foundation of [...]
[...] The ideals of protestant asceticism such as their organization of life and abstinence from fruitless spending are examples of this spirit of work, and are important features in industrial capitalist thinking. Weber argued that in the west, civil servants were the most important social carriers. He claimed that the civil servants in western society were trained in technical, commercial, and legal areas of knowledge and thus were the most important social carriers. Therefore since civil servants excelled in the other areas which were also conductive to capitalism (accounting, law, etc.) it can be argued that social carriers are extremely important to the development of industrial capitalism (Weber, 2002). [...]
[...] Therefore by examining and contrasting these ideal types one is able to uncover why Calvinism was conductive to the development of modern industrial capitalism in the west (Weber, 2002). The differences between Calvinism and Catholicism were immense in terms of their beliefs regarding salvation. Since the psychological motivations within a religion affects organization of the believer's life, it can be insinuated that Catholics and Calvinists would lead different lifestyles. Firstly, Lutherans, Catholics believed that one could atone for their sins at any time in their lives. [...]
[...] Thus by rejecting the sacraments the Calvinists eliminated the magical elements from their religion and put larger emphasis on their own actions. Therefore Calvinism differed from Catholicism in the sense that Calvinism put more emphasis on living a consistently holy life as they did not believe in forgiveness of sins (Weber, 2002). Although Pietism and Calvinism were similar in many ways they did in fact share one distinct difference. While both religious sects believed in predestination, their beliefs in regards to awareness of calling were different. [...]
[...] Followers who lived lawful eyes were supposed to receive an immense feeling of acceptance and would thus know if they had been accepted into heaven by the lord. This is similar to Calvinism as they attempted to acquire certainty of their salvation by living their lives in accordance with god. Therefore the major difference between Pietism and Calvinism was that Pietists felt that they could gain knowledge of their salvation from god whereas Calvinists lived their entire lives unsure of their calling (Weber, 2002). [...]
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