Political Education as Subtext of Max Weber’s ‘The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism’ (2020.12)
- Author : Chi-Won, Choi
- Journal : Korean Political Science Review
- Publisher : The Korean Political Science Association
- Volume : Vol.54 No.5
- Date : 2020. 12
Abstract : First, the Structure of Weber’s thought is as multi-layered, divisive, and contradictory as the modern world he grasped. Second, if we understand “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” without considering Weber’s thoughts with these characteristics, we easily fall into the stereotype and prejudice that it is merely a pure academic work of a scholar. Third, the original text of Weber’s ‘The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism’ underwent several revisions. Thus the original text of 1904/05 and the text of 1919/20 have different meanings and purposes. Fourth, it seems that no one properly reads and grasps the meaning of the original text in the sense of multi-layered and contradictive Weber’s thought-structure: It is very important to understand the political motives contained in the original text as much as the academic motives of this work. Fifth, the background and intention of the birth of the original text, whose traces have been erased from the text of 1919/20, shows that it has written for a political education book rather than a pure academic research. In short, along with ‘Science as a Vocation’ and ‘Politics as a Vocation’, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism can be understood as political education book. If the former two works complete the political education work he declared in his inauguration speech, ‘Protestant Ethics and Capitalist Spirit’ is the starting work of this.