Calvinism and the capitalist spirit : Max Weber's Protestant ethic

144 Pages·1983·5.559 MB·English

by  Gianfranco Poggi

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2019 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation
https://archive.org/details/calvinismcapitalOOOOpogg

NUNC COGNOSCO EX PARTE
THOMAS J. BATA LI BRARY
TRENT UNIVERSITY
NEW STUDIES IN SOCIOLOGY
This series, prepared under the auspices of the British Sociological
Association, has now been revised to present larger, more substantial
works. The overall purpose of the series remains the same: to provide
scholarly yet argumentative treatments of key problems in sociology. The
books are neither textbooks nor research monographs. Rather they present
an original viewpoint upon subjects where an orthodoxy does not exist,
whether because of undue neglect or because recent research hks
overturned previous orthodoxies. The series is designed to provide
empirically informed theory about society, relating a diversity of empirical
areas to central problems of sociological theory.
MICHAEL MANN
NEW STUDIES IN S(O CIOLOGY
Published in conjunction with the
British Sociological Association
Editor: Michael Mann
Published
The Challenge of Corporatism
Otto Newman
State, Bureaucracy and Civil Society
Victor M. Perez-Diaz
Calvinism and the Capitalist Spirit
Gianfranco Poggi
The Transition from Capitalism to Socialism
John D. Stephens
Forthcoming
Illness and Sociology
Uta Gerhardt
The Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism
Bob Holton
The Politics of the Semi-Periphery
Nicos Mouzelis
Calvinism and the
Capitalist Spirit
Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic
Gianfranco Poggi
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(6) Gianfranco Poggi 1983
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission.
First published 1983 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives throughout the world
ISBN 0 333 34504 5 (hard cover)
ISBN 0 333 34505 3 (paper cover)
Typeset in Great Britain by Illustrated Arts
Printed in Hong Kong
Contents
Foreword by Michael Mann vii
Preface x
Abbreviations xiii
1 The Personal Context 1
2 The Conceptual Context 13
3 The Historical Context 27
4 The Argument, I: The Spirit of Capitalism 40
5 The Argument, II: The Search for
Religious Determinants 52
6 The Argument, III: The Religious
Determinants Identified 62
7 Some Comments on the Argument 79
8 An Alternative Historical Context 92
Notes and References 114
Index 119
To Pat and Maria