Max Weber o el enigma emocional del origen del capitalismo
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5477/cis/reis.95.9Keywords:
Capitalismo, Sociología de las emociones, Tesis weberiana, Teoría sociológicaAbstract
A very detail analysis of sociological theories developed by classical sociologists proof that it
is necessary to consider the emotions of social phenomena to fully understand that theories. This
principle sound to modern sociologists like a very strange idea, given that modern social science
tried hardest to exclude emotions from its theoretical models. Based on the sociology of
emotions, this article analyses Weber’ The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism from a
emotional point of view.
According to Weber’ thesis, the predestination dogma, that is, the belief that everything that
happens has been decided in advance by God, is at the origin of the spirit of capitalism. However,
it is not merely the belief, but the emotion that this belief evoke in the believers, a profound
anguish about their destiny, what oriented protestants towards worldly success. So, an idea, even
links to a value, cannot motivate human behavior without a correspondent emotion. A specific
system of the three basic components of a culture, that is, cognitive, evaluative, and emotive are
necessary.
However, from our point of view, anguish, a rather generic sentiment, is unable to make
intelligible the causal connection between the protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. Interpreting
Weber’s text, we propose that humiliation is the specific and strong sentiment elicited by
protestant doctrine. This religion threw a triple humiliation over human beings. First, human
beings know nothing about their destiny, but God is omniscient (cognitive humiliation).
Second, human beings deserve no respect before God (evaluative humiliation). And third,
human beings have not a right to felicity (emotive humiliation). This unbearable and absolute
absence of dignity created a strong motivation to pursuit a renewed pride. Then, a radical change
of values took place: from eternal salvation to worldly success, from traditional society to
modern society.
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