ABSTRACT
This chapter articulates the Max Weber's understanding of the value-spheres, vocation and the specific paradoxes of the economic sphere. The paradoxical outcomes of the search for meaning in Western history have played a significant part in rendering modernity meaningless. Weber provides an understanding of modernity based on the continuing paradoxical outcomes found in modern searches for meaning. The most important of these irrational elements that must be assumed in the practical life of the rationalised value-spheres comes from the history of Protestant rationalisation. The Protestant idea of the calling or vocation still has a meaningful presence at the very heart of the secular modern world. The understanding of modernity in terms of value-spheres comes late in Weber's life in the Intermediary Reflection and Economy and Society. The Hellenic state gave ample leeway to metaphysical and social-ethical speculations. The state merely demanded the observance of the cultic duties which were bequeathed, for neglect of them could bring misfortune to the polis.
