ABSTRACT
Max Weber was convinced that clear definitions of particular occurrences and developments can be formulated only after multiple comparisons. How can the distinctiveness of the “Western city” be demarcated without investigation of the cities of China, India, and the Middle East? Weber wished also, for example, to isolate the uniqueness of Puritanism’s “economic ethic.” However, he became convinced that exhaustive studies of the economic ethics of the world religionsIslam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, ancient Judaism, and Western Christianity in general-proved indispensable to do so (see 2009: 238-40). And how can the distinctiveness in general of the modern West be isolated, Weber queries, unless comparisons are undertaken on the one hand to the medieval and ancient epochs and, on the other hand, to China, India, and the Middle East?
