综合英语.西方思想经典选读(常俊跃黄滔)_Text B Money and Ethic（1 / 1）_综合英语.西方思想经典选读最新章节免费阅读无弹窗

Max Weber

Pre-reading

Max Weber (April 1864-June 1920) was a German sociologist, philosopher, and political economist whose ideas profoundly influenced social theory and social research. He is known as a principal architect of modern social science along with Karl Marx and Emil Durkheim. Weber argued for the study of social action through interpretive means, rather than pure empiricism. His works focused on the processes of rationalization, secularization, and “disenchantment” that he associated with the rise of capitalism and modernity, and which he saw as the result of a new way of thinking about the world. The two theses of “rationalization” and the “Protestant Ethic” together helped launch Weber’s reputation as one of the founding theorists of modernity. His influence was far-reaching across the vast array of disciplinary, methodological, ideological and philosophical reflections that are still our own and increasingly more so.

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism was published as two essays in 1904 and 1905, and were later collected together in 1919. Weber argued that it was not possible to construct a single comprehensive model of the origins of capitalism, but looked on these essays as providing insight into factors associated with the development of the capitalism system of organization. According to Weber, Calvinist ethic and ideas influenced the development of capitalism. He found that societies having more Protestants were those with a more highly developed capitalist economy. Similarly, in societies with different religions, most successful business leaders were Protestant.

Weber thus argued that the development of the calling quickly gave to the modern entrepreneur a fabulously clear conscience, and also industrious workers. Predestination also reduced agonizing over economic inequality and further. It meant that a material wealth could be taken as a sign of salvation in the afterlife. The believers thus justified pursuit of profit with religion, as instead of being fuelled by morally suspect greed or ambition. Their actions were motivated by a highly moral and respected philosophy. This Weber called the “spirit of capitalism”: it was the Protestant religious ideology that was behind — and inevitably led to — the capitalist economic system.

The following passage is Part 2 taken from The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

Prompts for Your Reading

1.The passage begins with a series of ideas preached by Benjamin Franklin. What are all these ideas concerned with?

2.What is the author’s attitude towards Benjamin Franklin and his preaching?

3.In what way are the two attitudes about retiring different?

4.What is Weber’s attitude towards making money?

5.What is the spirit of capitalism proposed by Max Weber? How is it different from the traditional capitalism?

6.What does utilitarianism mean in this passage?

7.In what way can honesty be useful rather than virtuous?

8.What is meant by the summum bonum of his (Franklin’s) ethic?

9.The author points out in Paragraph 16 “this reversal of what we should call the natural relationship”. What does “this reversal” here mean? What should “the natural relationship” be like?

[1]“Remember, that time is money. He that can earn ten shillings1 a day by his labor, and goes abroad, or sits idle, one half of that day, though he spends but sixpence during his diversion or idleness, ought not to reckon that the only expense; he has really spent, rather thrown away, five shillings, besides.

[2]“Remember, that credit is money. If a man lets his money lie in my hands after it is due, he gives me interest, or so much as I can make of it during that time. This amounts to a considerable sum where a man has good and large credit, and makes good use of it.

[3]“Remember, that money is of the prolific, generating nature. Money can beget money, and its offspring can beget more, and so on. Five shillings turned is six, turned again it is seven and three pence, and so on, till it becomes a hundred pounds. The more there is of it, the more it produces every turning, so that the profits rise quicker and quicker. He that kills a breeding sow, destroys all her offspring to the thousandth generation. He that murders a crown, destroys all that it might have produced, even scores of pounds.”

[4]“Remember this saying, the good paymaster is lord of another man’s purse. He that is known to pay punctually and exactly to the time he promises, may at any time, and on any occasion, raise all the money his friends can spare. This is sometimes of great use. After industry and frugality, nothing contributes more to the raising of a young man in the world than punctuality and justice in all his dealings; therefore never keep borrowed money an hour beyond the time you promised, lest a disappointment shut up your friend’s purse for ever.

[5]“The most trifling actions that affect a man’s credit are to be regarded. The sound of your hammer at five in the morning, or eight at night, heard by a creditor, makes him easy six months longer; but if he sees you at a billiard table, or hears your voice at a tavern, when you should be at work, he sends for his money the next day; demands it, before he can receive it, in a lump. ‘It shows, besides, that you are mindful of what you owe; it makes you appear a careful as well as an honest man, and that still increases your credit.’

[6]“Beware of thinking all your own that you possess, and of living accordingly. It is a mistake that many people who have credit fall into. To prevent this, keep an exact account for some time both of your expenses and your income. If you take the pains at first to mention particulars, it will have this good effect: you will discover how wonderfully small, trifling expenses mount up to large sums, and will discern what might have been, and may for the future be saved, without occasioning any great inconvenience.

[7]“For six pounds a year you may have the use of one hundred pounds, provided you are a man of known prudence and honesty.

[8]“He that spends a groat2 a day idly, spends idly above six pounds a year, which is the price for the use of one hundred pounds.

[9]“He that wastes idly a groat’s worth of his time per day, one day with another, wastes the privilege of using one hundred pounds each day.

[10]“He that idly loses five shillings’ worth of time, loses five shillings, and might as prudently throw five shillings into the sea.

[11] “He that loses five shillings, not only loses that sum, but all the advantage that might be made by turning it in dealing, which by the time that a young man becomes old, will amount to a considerable sum of money.”

[12] It is Benjamin Franklin3 who preaches to us in these sentences, the same which Ferdinand Kurnberger4 satirizes in his clever and malicious Picture of American Culture as the supposed confession of faith of the Yankee. That it is the spirit of capitalism which here speaks in characteristic fashion, no one will doubt, however little we may wish to claim that everything which could be understood as pertaining to that spirit is contained in it. Let us pause a moment to consider this passage, the philosophy of which Kurnberger sums up in the words, “They make tallow out of cattle and money out of men.” The peculiarity of this philosophy of avarice appears to be the ideal of the honest man of recognized credit, and above all the idea of a duty of the individual toward the increase of his capital, which is assumed as an end in itself. Truly what is here preached is not simply a means of making one’s way in the world, but a peculiar ethic. The infraction of its rules is treated not as foolishness but as forgetfulness of duty. That is the essence of the matter. It is not mere business astuteness, that sort of thing is common enough, it is an ethos. This is the quality which interests us.

[13] When Jacob Fugger5, in speaking to a business associate who had retired and who wanted to persuade him to do the same, since he had made enough money and should let others have a chance, rejected that as pusillanimity and answered that “he (Fugger) thought otherwise, he wanted to make money as long as he could,” the spirit of his statement is evidently quite different from that of Franklin. What in the former case was an expression of commercial daring and a personal inclination morally neutral, in the latter takes on the character of ethically colored maxim for the conduct of life. The concept spirit of capitalism is here used in this specific sense, it is the spirit of modern capitalism. For that we are here dealing only with Western European and American capitalism is obvious from the way in which the problem was stated. Capitalism existed in China, India, Babylon6, in the classic world7, and in the Middle Ages8. But in all these cases, as we shall see, this particular ethos was lacking.

[14] Now, all Franklin’s moral attitudes are colored with utilitarianism9. Honesty is useful, because it assures credit; so are punctuality, industry, frugality, and that is the reason they are virtues. A logical deduction from this would be that where, for instance, the appearance of honesty serves the same purpose, that would suffice, and an unnecessary surplus of this virtue would evidently appear to Franklin’s eyes a unproductive waste. And as a matter of fact, the story in his autobiography of his conversion to those virtues, or the discussion of the value of a strict maintenance of the appearance of modesty, the assiduous belittlement of one’s own deserts in order to gain general recognition later, confirms this impression. According to Franklin, those virtues, like all others, are only in so far virtues as they are actually useful to the individual, and the surrogate of mere appearance is always sufficient when it accomplishes the end in view. It is a conclusion which is inevitable for strict utilitarianism. The impression of many Germans that the virtues professed by Americanism are pure hypocrisy seems to have been confirmed by this striking case. But in fact the matter is not by any means so simple.

[15] Benjamin Franklin’s own character, as it appears in the really unusual candidness of his autobiography, belies that suspicion. The circumstance that he ascribes his recognition of the utility of virtue to a divine revelation which was intended to lead him in the path of righteousness, shows that something more than mere garnishing for purely egocentric motives is involved.

[16] In fact, the summum bonum10of his ethic, the earning of more and more money, combined with the strict avoidance of all spontaneous enjoyment of life, is above all completely devoid of any eudemonistic, not to say hedonistic, admixture. It is thought of so purely as an end in itself, that from the point of view of the happiness of, or utility to, the single individual, it appears entirely transcendental and absolutely irrational. Man is dominated by the making of money, by acquisition as the ultimate purpose of his life. Economic acquisition is no longer subordinated to man as the means for the satisfaction of his material needs. This reversal of what we should call the natural relationship, so irrational from a naive point of view, is evidently as definitely a leading principle of capitalism as it is foreign to all peoples not under capitalistic influence. At the same time it expresses a type of feeling which is closely connected with certain religious ideas. If we thus ask, why should “money be made out of men”, Benjamin Franklin himself, although he was a colorless deist, answers in his autobiography with a quotation from the Bible, which his strict Calvinistic father drummed into him again and again in his youth: “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings.” The earning of money within the modern economic order is, so long as it is done legally, the result and the expression of virtue and proficiency in a calling; and this virtue and proficiency are, as it is now not difficult to see, the real Alpha and Omega of Franklin’s ethic, as expressed in the passages we have quoted, as well as in all his works without exception.

Notes

1.shilling: a former monetary unit in Great Britain worth one twentieth of a pound先令

2.groat: a former English silver coin worth four pennies, taken out of circulation in the 17th century格罗特；英国四便士银币

3.Benjamin Franklin: (1706-1790) one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, a statesman, author, publisher, scientist, inventor and diplomat. He was deeply active in public affairs. During the American Revolution, he served in the Second Continental Congress and helped draft the Declaration of Independence in 1776. He also negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War (1775-1783). From 1785 to 1788, he served as governor of Pennsylvania, and was a delegate to the convention that produced the U.S. Constitution.

4.Ferdinand Kurnberger: (1821-1879) one of the most influential writers of Viennese literature in the sixties and seventies of the 19th century. He is now known mainly for his participation in the revolution of 1848, which would oblige him to flee to Dresden, Germany where he was arrested the following year.

5.Jacob Fugger: (1459-1525) also known as Jakob Fugger the Rich, a merchant, mining entrepreneur and banker of Europe. He was a descendant of the Fugger merchant family located in the Free Imperial City of Augsburg. Within a few decades he expanded the family firm to a business operating in all of Europe.

6.Babylon: capital of ancient Babylonia in Mesopotamia on the Euphrates River. Established as capital c. 1750 B.C. and rebuilt in regal splendor by Nebuchadnezzar II after its destruction (c. 689 B.C.) by the Assyrians, Babylon was the site of the Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

7.the classic world: here it refers to ancient Greece and Rome.

8.the Middle Ages: or Medieval period (A.D. 476-1453), began with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery.

9.utilitarianism: first brought up by Francis Hutcheson in his Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1725), and then elaborated by Bentham in his An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789). The doctrine can be“That action is best which procures the greatest happiness of the greatest number” or“the greatest happiness of the greatest number”.

10.summum bonum: the supreme good in which all moral values are included or from which they are derived

Questions for Further Thinking

1.What is your previous understanding of the spirit of capitalism? How is it different from the author’s interpretation?

2.Do you agree with the author on his view on Benjamin Franklin?

3.Benjamin Franklin says the good paymaster is lord of another man’s purse. What is your understanding of this famous saying?

4.To what degree have you believed in the truth and integrity of famous quotes and sayings?

5.If making money should not be taken as the purpose of life, what is the significance of business to individuals and to society?

6.How would you respond to Franklin’s ethic?

7.What would a society be like if it is oriented toward and dominated by money making?

After-reading Assignment

Oral Work

1.As a part of Christian ethics, the seven deadly sins are considered to be wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. To protect people from temptation of the sins, seven heavenly virtues are said to be needed, which are chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility. Define and explain these sins and virtues in a short presentation.

2.In the aftermath of each economic crisis, people find that credit is the most important to society, which is especially true to the financial tsunami in the U.S. in 2008 and the debt crisis in the EU afterwards. In what way is a credit system essential to a society? Discuss with you partner and exchange your ideas.

3.Study the term “utilitarianism” thoroughly and examine the possible effects of utilitarianism to individuals as well as to a society. Share the results of your studies with your classmates in a group discussion and learn from each other.

4.Philosophers like to think about the ultimate topics, such as who we are, where we are from, and what we live for. It concerns the means and ends of our life. But they can’t easily reach a consensus. What is your idea? Talk about it with your partners.

Written Work

1.As one of the great sociologists in the 20th century, Max Weber also studied religions and their related influences upon society, such as Hinduism, Judaism, Taoism and Confucianism. Learn about Weber’s response to Taoism and Confucianism and write a short summary.

2.The movie Other People’s Money is a dramatic reflection of the moral relationship in the business world. What is human relationship like in a highly commercialized society? How should people deal with the relationship between themselves and other people, such as colleagues, managers, clients, business associates? Watch the movie and write a review about it.

3.Money, Money, Money is a popular song in the musical Mamma Mia. The singer and character explains how hard she has to work to keep the tavern in order and her dreams of a better life. Listen to the song and pay particular attention to its lyrics. What does the song tell you about money, people, society and life? Write a short paragraph to record your intellectual and emotional response to the song.