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The Protestant Ethic thesis: Weber’s missing psychology

Center for Distance Learning, Empire State College (SUNY) in Saratoga Springs, NY, Ronnie.Mather{at}esc.edu

Commentators on Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism have tended to view that work within the context of world-historical social processes and change. Recently, more literary forms of analyses have come to the fore emphasizing Weber’s indebtedness to the philosophical/literary efforts of Nietzsche and Goethe, among others. The following offers the preliminary observation that the concept of ‘drive’ understood as a mode of psychological operation and process considerably complicates any possible interpretation of the essay itself. Weber’s refusal to specify the exact nature and extent of the psychological Antriebe underlying his rational actor may make a decisive interpretation of the text impossible. Nevertheless, there may be good reason for supposing that Weber’s usage of the terms ‘drive’ and ‘maxim’ is indicative of a Fichtean synthesis of anthropological impulses and the operations of the rational intellect via his reading of Hugo Münsterberg.

Key Words: drives • maxims • psychology • transcendental arguments • utilitarianism

History of the Human Sciences, Vol. 18, No. 3, 1-16 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0952695105059303


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