The Weber Thesis and South East Asia - article ; n°1 ; vol.15, pg 21-34

Syed Husseinalatas.

Description

Archives des sciences sociales des religions - Année 1963 - Volume 15 - Numéro 1 - Pages 21-34
14 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Archives-des-sciences-sociales-des-religions
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1963
• Nombre de lectures: 52
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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Syed Farid Alatas
The Weber Thesis and South East Asia
In: Archives des sciences sociales des religions. N. 15, 1963. pp. 21-34.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Alatas Syed Farid. The Weber Thesis and South East Asia. In: Archives des sciences sociales des religions. N. 15, 1963. pp.
21-34.
doi : 10.3406/assr.1963.1719
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/assr_0003-9659_1963_num_15_1_1719THE WEBER THESIS
AND SOUTH EAST ASIA
HIS Islam paper and aims economic at assessing action the in South status East of the Asia Weber thesis by relating it to
In the discussion on the Weber thesis eversince its publication in 1904-1905
much effort has been wasted to eliminate some misunderstandings concer
ning the thesis or parts of it Besides this there has been also misunderstanding
one way or mutual between authors involved in the discussion Sometimes it
is not easy to decide quickly who misunderstands whom Talcott Parsons for
instance accusses Roberstson for misunderstanding conception
of the spirit of capitalism Robertson according to Parsons identifies the
spirit of capitalism with acquisitiveness while this has only secondary
place in conception The conception of the calling suggested by Weber
belongs to different order 1)
Although Parsons description of conception is correct am not
certain that his accusation against Robertson hits the mark admit that there
are certain passages in book which reveal some misunderstandings
as when he tries to show that the doctrine of the calling is opposed to the amassing
of wealth and covetousness This is however superfluous because Weber
never claims that the doctrine of the calling exhorts people to acquisitiveness
This acquisitiveness is considered by Weber as an indirect by-product though
significant one
Despite such superfluous remarks Robertson shows proper understanding
of Weber He notes Weber has stressed the point that the doctrine of the
calling caused the Puritans to be diligent in their application to business to
the greater glory of God Similarly the unintended effect released by the
fusion of Calvinism and business contrary to the ideals of Calvin is also noted
by Robertson elaboration of perspectives acknowledged by Weber
serves only to emphasize the order of significance in the data used both by him
and Weber His ignoring the significance of the religious factor pushed into
See his introduction to Max Weber The theory of social and economic organization
tr A.M Henderson and Parsons) G-lencoe Illinois Pree Press 1947 81
H.M ROBERTSON Aspects of the rise of economic individualism Cambridge University
Press 1933 11
Ibid. 11
Ibid.. 208
21 ARCHIVES DE SOCIOLOGIE DES RELIGIONS
prominence by Weber as decisive one in the cluster of causes suggested to ex
plain the capitalist spirit merely conforms to his opinion that an explanation
based on it is fantastic 5)
Whatever is the merit of his criticisms it is doubtful whether we can accuse
Robertson of misunderstanding the thesis although do agree that he misun
derstands some of ideas like the ideal-type and its application It belongs
to the canon of true understanding to classify and place in the scheme of signifi
cance the of an author towards another In the case of Bobert-
son some of his misunderstandings of Weber like that concerning the ideal-type
are not damaging to his arguments in refuting the thesis
Considering the controversy and its complexity it is advisable to present
here brief introduction to the definition of the thesis before embarking upon
the main theme so that the rest which follows may be judged from the correct
perspective
To begin with let us locate the place of the Weber thesis in the writings of
Max Weber We have writings on philosophical and methodological
issues We have his works on sociology and economic history covering such
topics as bureaucracy classes cities and their growths typology of social pheno
mena and men etc We have his contributions on the study of religion
combination of history and sociology
The Weber thesis is part of the last mentioned kind of contributions Con
sequently distinction is here maintained between the Weber thesis as such
of which description will be given his sociology of religion and his other socio
logical contributions The concern of this paper is restricted only to the thesis
As such the conclusions expressed here have no validity beyond the confine of
the thesis
While it is true that it is impossible to understand Weber completely without
considering the wider background of his scientific thought-world nevertheless
it is possible in principle to refute the thesis without awareness of
wider interest provided however the relevant part of his total contribution
connected directly with the thesis is not forgotten As noted earlier
misunderstanding of the ideal-type or even his complete ignorance of it had it
been so need not necessarily jeopardize his attempt to remove Weber from his
pedestal of certainty It is not out of place to mention this since some of
defenders have made good use of his ignorance of his other
writings They reproach the critics who happen to be unfamiliar with the many
sided contributions of Max Weber
The distinction between the thesis and sociology of religion has
often been ignored or unperceived In the introduction to their valuable selec
tion and translation of works Gerth and Mills refer to the thesis
which in their hands assumes different form than that intended by Weber
as evidenced by the following In any case Weber is concerned with
using generalized conceptions in order to understand society as subject to lawful
regularities For such regularities are necessary in order to satisfy an interest in
causation To understand sequence of regular events causally one must examine
comparable conditions Thus in an attempt to validate his causal analysis of
religion and capitalism in the Occident Weber examined many other civilizations
Although capitalist beginnings could be observed in these
capitalism in the Western sense did not emerge Weber wished to find those
factors in other civilizations which blocked the emergence of capitalism even
Ibid. 206
22 THE WEBER THESIS AND SOUTH EAST ASIA
though there were many favourable conditions present for its emergence By
such comparative analysis of causal sequences Weber tried to find not only
the necessary but the sufficient conditions of capitalism Only in the Occident
particularly where innerworldly asceticism produced specific personality
type were the sufficient conditions present In his pluralism he naturally did
not consider this type of personality the only factor involved in the origin of
capitalism he merely wished to have it included among the conditions of 6)
The reference to the thesis is clear but intention here is not fully
expressed It is not true that Weber merely wished to have it included among
the conditions of capitalism It is much more than this Weber in several places
suggests that had indeed several causes One of these is religion and
that too the Christian religion Within the Christian religion it is Protestantism
and within Protestantism it is Calvinism that played the most significant role
in the genesis of capitalism There are thus several effects of Christianity on
economic action directly and indirectly related to the birth of modern capitalism
One of them is what Weber believed to be elimination of magic
which made rational action possible This factor has operated for centuries before
the Reformation It is peculiar to the Semitic tradition of the prophetic religions
There is thus set of unique Judaic-Christian religious factors operating for
centuries in European history making it possible for capitalism to rise One of
these factors emerging later is the innerworldly asceticism This innerworldly
asceticism noted by Gerthand Mills has been differentiated by Weber into two kinds
the Lutheran and the Calvinist both present during the Reformation It is the Cal
vinist blend that Weber found interesting not only as one of the conditions as sug
gested by Gerth and Mills but as decisive and significant one This is what
Weber says of the Protestant outlook without yet emphasizing the Calvinist As
far as the influence of the Puritan outlook extended under all circumstances and
this is of course much more important than the mere encouragement of capital
accumulation it favoured the development of rational bourgeois economic
life it was the most important and above all the only consistent influence in
the development of that life It stood at the cradle of the modern
man 8)
Had Weber not made such claim there would in all probability be no
controversy around his thesis The peculiarly Calvinist blend of innerworldly asce
ticism later emphasized by Weber qualifies the thesis as thesis Failure to make
the distinction between thesis and his general sociology of religion will
contribute to increase the existing confusion and misunderstanding which always
accompany discussion between several people This distinction is at times ignored
in works intended to have no connection with the controversy may mention here
valuable and instructive work as an instance In his Tokugawa Religion Bellah <