文化变革与西方资本主义的兴起——读韦伯《新教伦理与资本主义精神》

20世纪初 ,德国著名社会学家马克斯·韦伯发表了《新教伦理与资本主义精神》(以下简称《新教伦理》)一书。他在书中提出西方经过宗教改革形成的新教 ,尤其是英国的清教孕育了一种“资本主义精神”,而这种精神对于近代资本主义的产生和发展起到了巨大的推动作用。在随后的一系列比较宗教研究中 ,他进一步提出包括中国在内的东方世界因缺少一种类似的资本主义精神 ,使得近代资本主义在这些地区迟迟不能产生 1。近一个世纪以来 ,韦伯的这一学说不断地受到怀疑和批评。唯物主义者认为韦伯颠倒了物质和精神的关系。英国著名的费边主义史学家托尼…     

理性的悖谬--新教伦理是如何使资本主义可能的？

《新教伦理与资本主义精神》是马克思·韦伯最脍炙人口的经典名著,韦伯从大量的历史研究资料和深入的分析思考中,廓出了一条精神意识层面的新教伦理产生资本主义的思路。然而韦伯这种分析的背后隐藏着一种巨大的逻辑的悖谬：一个理性的资本主义的社会秩序规范的产生,竟然源自于一种看起来非理性的新教的伦理以及由此伦理产生的似乎与人的天性和基本需求背离的毫无理性可言的极端的禁欲生活。本文就此为问题点,将从“资本主义的精神是什么”、“理性悖谬产生和维持的原因”、“悖谬的维持”三个层面加以探讨和追问,逐渐梳理全书的脉络和基本观点。     

解读《新教伦理与资本主义精神》

《新教伦理与资本主义精神》是马克思·韦伯的代表作之一,书中韦伯认为清教的禁欲主义是催生资本主义精神的原因之一,本文旨在根据韦伯的写作思路理清资本主义精神与禁欲主义之间的逻辑关系,即从资本主义精神与劳动"天职"观的内在联系入手,再分析"天职"观的起源及加尔文宗对其的完善,最后得出新教伦理与资本主义精神的关系。     

浅析近代资本主义发展的精神动力

马克斯.韦伯在其著作《新教伦理与资本主义的发展》一书中阐释了新教伦理在资本主义精神的形成与发展中起着至关重要的作用,进而深刻地影响了资本主义的经济发展。而当代学者罗德尼.斯达克在《理性的胜利》中虽对韦伯的观点进行了批判,但二者思想中仍然存在一致性的因素。本文对这两本著作进行了对比分析,试图剖析近代资本主义发展的精神动力和该因素的作用机制。     

资本主义精神：新教伦理、个人主义还是“民族主义”

韦伯、桑巴特和托尼对资本主义精神的理解各不相同。韦伯突出宗教改革对资本主义兴起的意义,重视禁欲主义、勤奋、节俭等新教伦理;桑巴特强调个人对财富和享乐的追求,甚至认为资本主义产生于奢侈。但他们都对资本主义的恶性发展和精神危机表示忧虑。托尼同样担忧资本主义活动中道德伦理的缺失,认为宗教冷淡和个人主义的发展会带来恶果。格林菲尔德以某种“集体意识形态”替代韦伯命题中的个体意识,反对用个人主义解释资本主义。但她以“英格兰民族主义”为资本主义兴起与持续发展动因的论述,既不能解释资本主义的兴起,也不符合资本主义发展的历史。     

马克斯·韦伯眼中的孔子:韦伯中国史观中的精神与自然力

[提要]作为德国社会学古典理论的奠基人之一,马克斯·韦伯以“新教伦理与资本主义精神之间具有历史亲和力”的观点在世界范围内享有盛誉。他终其一生都在以摒弃西方人传统偏见的态度去探究非西方的文化。韦伯在中国宗教(尤其是儒教和道教)研究领域取得了巨大成就。他以对孔子和儒者的仰止之心指出儒教是一种高度发达的、冷静的理性主义,深刻剖析了宗教是中国未能发展成为现代化工业社会的决定性因素。韦伯进一步揭示了自然环境及其变迁对于中国历史进程的影响,阐释了自然环境状况也是中国未能发展成为工业资本主义的另一症结所在。     

现代社会的发展前景——读《新教伦理与资本主义精神》

本文是基于阅读《新教伦理与资本主义精神》这本著作而引出的一些论点,通过对新教伦理与资本主义精神的选择亲和性,理性化过程,帕森斯对韦伯的解读以及多元因果分析几方面总结现代社会在发展过程中出现的一些问题,在问题背后现代社会依旧繁荣体现出的人类自身的主观能动性,即强调韦伯支持文化层面对社会发展的重要作用的方面,认为现代社会的发展前景依旧是令人向往的,而不应该持一种悲观的态度。     

教会经济伦理与资本主义兴起

基督教与资本主义兴起的关系,长期以来是西方学术界激扬字的焦点。韦伯的名《新教伦理与资本主义精神》关于新教伦理产生资本主义的观点尽管遭到种种非议与驳斥,但论战双方对天主教伦理社会功能的评判是一致的,都认为宗教改革以前的基督教教诲基本还是反     

论儒家资本主义学说

儒家资本主义学说主张“儒家伦理促进经济发展”,曾在学界一度流行。由于儒家资本主义学说要讨论的东亚“现代性的采借”,不同于韦伯要讨论的西欧“现代性的始发”,加之儒家和新教宗教形态、社会作用模式都有不同,“韦伯命题”对儒家资本主义学说的意义有限。儒家资本主义学说过多地依赖韦伯理论,采用单调的对勘比较法建构逻辑,就不免产生过多牵强附会的比附。儒家资本主义学说之所以流行,主要是它迎合了学术思想界一些价值需求,使得这一学说论调多于论证,最终变成一股泡沫化的“思潮”。     

韦伯新教资本主义模式与海外华人经济的文化诠释──评《新教伦理与资本主义精神》

马克斯·韦伯（ＭａｘＷｅｂｅｒ,１８６４—１９２０）是现代西方最具影响力的社会科学家和思想家之一,他毕生致力于从比较文化研究的视角解释世界特别是西方的现代化进程,从而在构成其比较文化系列著作《宗教社会学论文集》核心部分的《新教伦理与资本主义精神》中提...     

Telling small stories: spaces of knowledge and the practice of geography

This article examines how the practice of learning geography, and the arenas in which knowledge-making takes place, can be usefully positioned within changing histories of the discipline. It contends that networks of action – understood through the intersection of social sites, subjects and sources – present a conceptual framework and narrative focus for the re-consideration of specific episodes from geography's past. The interventions made here are informed and illustrated by a 'small story' about the doing of geography. Based on different personal accounts, the story revives a series of events, encounters, dialogues and images dating back to the winter of 1951 at Glenmore Lodge, Scotland. This educational institution in the Cairngorm mountains offered children from urban areas the opportunity to learn field studies and the skills of 'outdoor citizenship'. Initially, the focus falls on Margaret Jack, a 14-year-old field-course participant. Her learning experiences are traced through personal letters, a diary and a field journal dating from that time, and her recent recollections of this event. Margaret's account dovetails with the story of her field studies instructor, Robin Murray. Robin's role is traced through his learning experiences as a geography undergraduate at Aberdeen University, and the recent recollections of Catriona Murray, his wife.     

Das Wissen der Schulden. Recht,Kulturtechnik und Alltagserfahrung im liberalen Kapitalismus

The Knowledge of Debt: Law, Media Technique, and Everyday Experience in Liberal Capitalism. Performing an object such as ‘the economy’ hinges on practices of formatting knowledge. The article proposes to look at such instituting moments in connection with social conflicts over the legitimate rules of exchange. This is exemplified by way of recounting the story of the codification of Swiss bankruptcy law in 1889. In order to homogenize the legal procedures of debt collection and bankruptcy, two subject categories were instituted: ‘merchants’ and ‘non-merchants’. These different categories were thought to account for the diverging temporalities and spaces of credit exchange in everyday economic life. The introduction of the commercial register, a media-technical apparatus, enabled a formal distinction between ‘merchants’ and ‘non-merchants’. However, this boundary was contested and proved to be porose.     

Two radiocarbon dates for freshwater shells from hierakonpolis: Archaeological and geological interpretations

Shells of two species of freshwater bivalve (Unio willcocksi Bullen Newton and Etheria elliptica Lamarck) from the predynastic Gerzean (Nagada II) Decorated Tomb at Hierakonpolis, Egypt have given dates of 5000±90 bp for the tomb, and 12,900±120 bp for an episode of Nile terrace accumulation (correlated here with the Sahaba-Darau aggradation event). The archaeological and geological significance of these results is discussed, together with an outline of problems associated with radiocarbon dating of shell. Comparisons are made with the few other radiocarbon dates available for the Predynastic period in Egypt and possible reasons for the presence of shells in the tomb are considered.     

Some chronological implications of a fossil molluscan assemblage from a neolithic site at Brook,Kent, England

The later post-glacial history of a valley in the chalk escarpment near Brook, Kent, is described, based on molluscan stratigraphy, archaeological evidence and radio-carbon dating. Differences in size and colour banding, respectively, of fossil and living representatives of two species of land snails, Pomatias elegans (Müller) and Cepaea nemoralis (L.), are correlated with climatic change during the post-glacial period. The problems of the use of fossil shells of these species as samples for radiocarbon dating are discussed.     

China's Dynamic Industrial Sector: The Internet Industry

A Singapore-based economic geographer explores and analyzes the spatially uneven evolution of the Internet industry in China, arguing that the country's immense regional disparity in the provision of Internet services is best explained by the interplay of place- and path-dependence. The author demonstrates how the highly uneven regional endowments in relevant industrial and entrepreneurial resources have led to the substantial and persistent regional imbalance within China's emerging "new economy." His initial survey of the country's 100 leading Internet content providers (firms), identified from a listing of ca. 11,700 commercial websites, is selectively augmented to reflect an increase of over 70 million Internet users in 2007, reaching a total of 253 million in June 2008, and thus overtaking the United States as the world's largest Internet market. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: L10, L86, O30. 6 figures, 1 table, 53 references.     

The 1911 International Exposition in Rome: architecture, archaeology, and national identity

This paper discusses the 1911 International Exposition in Rome and illustrates how this patriotic celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Italian Sate utilized symbolic landscapes of architecture and archaeology to promote nationalist sentiments of italianità and romanità centered on the young capital of Rome. Through modern art exhibitions at the Valle Giulia, scientific conferences at the Castel Sant’Angelo, archaeological exhibits on the Roman Empire in the Baths of Diocletian, and regional Italian pavilions in the Piazza d’Armi, exposition officials offered a complex representation of Italian national identity that was modern yet ancient, cosmopolitan yet bucolic, European yet regional, and imperial yet developing.     

The Rise and Fall of Alexander the Great – The Need for Medical Analysis: Reply to Commentaries

Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C. from an unknown cause. By elucidating the nature of his death, we can better interpret various aspects of Alexandrian history. Alexander’s death may have ensued from the sequelae of a congenital scoliotic syndrome. It would therefore be of significance to note that one of the greatest leaders in history who conquered much of the then known world may have been suffering from a physical disability.     

Hospital Drama: Visual Theatres of the Medical Rendezvous from Asylum to Hospital with Reference to Specific Works by Anna Furse

Abstract

This paper is informed by Furse’s practice as a theatre maker in two fields of output that are connected by two factors: first, the presence of the woman patient — hysteric/subfertile respectively — within the clinical gaze; second, the significance of the womb to each pathology. In the treatment of each (explored in Furse’s theatre), lens based technologies play their part, whilst the cultural and medical can be seen to have overlapped to produce specific meaning with regard to Her body and its spectacularity. The article presents an overview of some of the key issues in precisely how the woman’s body becomes spectacular within this prosthetic medical gaze and how the medical — and theatrically designed spaces to represent these — become meaningful and potent proxemics that in turn inform medical/ theatrical spectatorship. Overarching nineteenth-century protocols at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris (where Furse’s Augustine (Big Hysteria) is set) to contemporary imaging technologies used in the treatment of subfertility with Assisted Reproduction Technologies (the topic of her Art of A.R.T. projects), it examines the way in which photography develops through cinema to X-Ray, ultrasound and then 3D/4D ultrasound to ‘capture’ the woman’s body in ways by which she becomes muted and exposed. These occular technologies that extend the gaze, first to an exterior subject and then, eventually, traversing the flesh without knife, lend specific performativity to the ‘patient’ women, within the context of hysterias and reproductive impairments respectively. Finally, issues of suspension of disbelief are addressed. The spectator’s faith in the screen-based image of Her spectacular body is interrupted in Furse’s work, which is also keenly interested in the effect of such imagery on the woman’s sense of Self. The historical and cultural leaps in this article argue that there is indeed a trajectory through the history of medical imaging since the first application of photography to anatomy to the more advanced scoping technologies of medical imaging today, and that in each era, the production of these images remain fraught with cultural implications.     

The Death of Alexander the Great – A Spinal Twist of Fate

Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C. from an unknown cause. Physical depictions of this historical figure reveal the likelihood of a cervical scoliotic deformity. This is substantiated with the medical history and is correlated with his untimely death. For the first time, it is concluded that Alexander’s death may have ensued from the sequelae of a congenital scoliotic syndrome.