The moral justifications of the “spirit” of capitalism from conception of profession and ascetic regiment of conduct of life

Abstract

This article aims to analyze, from Max Weber's classic work "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism", how the modes of life conduct and conception of profession were adapted to the peculiarity of modern Western capitalism, laying the foundations for constitution of a new professional ethos. It is therefore a question of investigating how the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination produced elements of psychological stimuli that made individuals present entrepreneurial drives aimed at the rational accumulation of capital. In order to do so, a bibliographical revision was made around two dimensions of analysis of the work in question: profession as vocation and ascetic regiment of conduct of life. After all, the study found that religious education for ascesis, failing consumption and encouraging its application in production, as well as legitimizing private economic profit, implied in significant effects for the unleashing of rational capitalism.