Protestant ethic

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (London, 1930). 

Weber, M. (1971 (1904-5)). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Parsons, Talcott, Trans.). London Merton, R. (1987). Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth Century England. New York Webster, C. iycfii). The Great Instauration. Science, Medicine and Keform 1626-1660. London. 

Weber, M. (1971 (1904-5)). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Parsons, Talcott, Trans.). London. 

Weber, M. The Protestant Ethic attd the Spirit of Capitalism, f w York Scribner 1958. Hindutsmus und Buddhismus, in Weber, Cesammette AufsAtze zur RWigions-soziohgie, vcrf. 11, 1-378. Tubingen Mohr 1966. 

The foregoing issues have been repeatedly discussed and subjected to historiographic analyses in relation to theories developed concerning siting of factories. The establishment and maintainance, or successful development, of the chemical industry in Basle runs counter to the reasons usually given for the location of factories. The only natural site advantages were its position on the River Rhine, its proximity to the salt extraction plant in Schweizerhalle, the existence of a nearby gas works, and the fact that the customers - the textile industry - were nearby. Additionaly, cultural factors have been identified and the spirit of humanism and the Protestant ethics of the urban entrepreneurs were incorporated into the interpretations. ... 

I have referred to several ethical questions in Chapter 6 and this appendix, and I close with a more personal one. Were it not that someone in the Legislature might revive the ancient cry of the ultra-Protestant, Would you have celibacy practiced in the open streets a case could be made for academic celibacy. As C. S. Lewis remarks somewhere, academics do not work hard, they just work all the time, and this can put an enormous burden on a spouse, particularly if he or she is not an academic. No doubt there are some who, like Euler, can write their papers in the midst of the domestic hubbub, but most of us get increasingly irritable and obsessed as a deadline approaches or a book is nearly finished (or abandoned). I must admit that I have, at times, been oblivious to the distress I have caused my wife, whose loyalty and support have ever been beyond my desserts. It is one of the blessings of retirement that, busier than ever although one may be, there are not the pressures that one feels in the thick of a career and no excuses for neglecting a relationship without which the career itself would be little worth. 

In today s world, there are growing calls for companies to move beyond being responsible to shareholders for financial performance and become accountable to stakeholders for their wider economic, environmental, and societal impacts. The risk is that if customers believe that a company is not behaving ethically they are more likely to vote with their wallets and make their protest known by boycotting products or services. At a time of unprecedented scrutiny for companies, made easier by the CNN/Internet world, there is simply no hiding place. ... 

The Inquisition, as we have seen, fulfilled this function by defining as heretics or witches those who rejected, or were alleged to oppose, the dominant ethic. The concept of witch, denoting alliance with the Devil rather than with God, thus served Catholic and Protestant societies equally well each could, and did, define the other as the prototype of anti-Christ. Similarly, the concept of mental illness, denoting a state of disease rather than of health, serves Capitalist and Communist societies equally well (so long as they all adhere to a scientific view of human life) each can, and does, define the other as a paradigm of mental disease. 

Van der Werf, M., 1999. Sweatshop protests raise ethical and practical issues. Chron. High. Educ. 45, A38. 

Weber M (1930) The protestant work ethic and the spirit of capitalism an outline of interpretive sociology. Allen and Erwin, New York... 

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