ABSTRACT
Max Weber is often thought of as a theorist who championed the cause of normative explanations in opposition to the claims of historical materialism. Whereas Karl Marx treated values and beliefs as by-products of class or material interests, Weber sought to show that the path of causation often ran in the reverse direction. Weber's unwarranted reputation as an anti-materialist stems largely from his essays on early Protestantism. His attempt in these essays to demonstrate a link between certain religious precepts and a capitalist mentality was often transformed into the bowdlerized thesis that Calvinism was the principal cause of capitalism. In his essays on early Protestantism, Weber set out to explore the relationship between a particular religious ethic and a certain kind of capitalist spirit or mentality. His starting point is the Calvinist doctrine of predestination. According to Weber, the Calvinist conception of the calling was instrumental in shaping the economic outlook of workers as well as their employers.
