ABSTRACT

In a crucial passage in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (PE), Max Weber rejected the explanation of his friend, Werner Sombart, for the rise of modern capitalism (see Weber 2011: 96-8/60-62).2 In Der moderne Kapitalismus (1902), Sombart had argued that a “general rationalization of life” accounts for the development of modern capitalism’s “economic rationalism”—that is, the various societal spheres (for example, the economy, law, rulership, religion) advanced in a parallel manner and at the same tempo. Each domain was becoming more complex and differentiated; progress was occurring apace in each; each both called forth the development of modern capitalism and then assisted its further unfolding.