Traditionalism

@ MadeleineWier You have a point that capitalism can be the possible cause of the neutralization on the idea that working harder is a learned concept, however to only look at Protestantism as the key factor would seem to exclude a lot of other possible factors...such as improvement on technology and industry. Religion did play a large role in Western society, which makes it understandable that Weber related capitalism to its cause, however if you look at other countries practicing different religions there arises the question on how these countries became developed (without the help of Protestantism).

@MadeleineWier I agree completely. Weber also makes it clear within the Protestant Ethic that Protestantism is not the sole factor of modern capitalism, as the title of the book suggests, it is simply the spirit of capitalism. It is also important to remember that although Weber did support Marxism, he did not entirely agree with it, rather applying some of the Marxist concepts to his work, but not following it as a guideline. Through a Marxist perspective, one would argue that religion is a tool used by the Bourgeoisie to maintain power within a society. Weber however, would argue that religion was simply used to power modern capitalism and not maintain forms of hegemony. Other countries such as India for example that follows Hinduism experienced different economic development than in Europe as their views were more centered around escaping the material world (xiv).