The Modern, Organization and Capitalism

Abstract

Did the Protestant ethic make the modern capitalism ? This question was the starting point of sociology. However, there has been no successful answer, including Weber' s itself. Weber asserted that ascetic Puritanism' made the discipline of business, the strong tendency towards reproduction and the capital calculation, and that they became the base of the modern capitalism. But, in reality, they can be found in various societies, for example in Japan. They are not the true product of Protestantism. The asceticism of Protestantism produced the fundamental separation of organization from each individual person, even in personal business. It is the matrix of the modern rational organization which is the most important institution for the modern capitalism. Japan could not create this separation by herself, and the modern capitalism was not born in this society. In this sense, we can say Protestantism produced the modern capitalism. © 1990, Japanese Association For Mathematical Sociology. All rights reserved.