Rationality and Modern Capitalism in the Context of Max Weber’s Work with Genetic Concepts
Rationality and Modern Capitalism in the Context of Max Weber’s Work with Genetic Concepts

Summary/Abstract: This article will follow approximately the following strategy. I will first show briefly what the logic of Weber’s work with genetic – as opposed to classificatory – concepts consists of and what possibilities it opens up for historical theoretical consideration. I will then trace some possible results of the application of this work to the concepts of “rationalism” (“Western rationalism”) and “capitalism” (“modern capitalism”). Particular emphasis will be placed on some specific configurations (historical encounters) that such work on rationalism and capitalism has come across, but I will show that these – mongrel in character – formations also highlight fields of possible disintegration. All this, as I will summarize in the end, allows further light to be shed on the interrelationship between rationality and capitalism. Finally, rather as a promise for future work, I will briefly consider a different (Schumpeter’s) vision of the relationship between rationality and capitalism, which nevertheless stems from Weberian contexts.

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