Sociology homework

General Instructions: Complete the reading listed on the syllabus under Week 7. Then answer the following questions in full sentences. Your answers should be 2-6 sentences, depending on the question. Include page numbers in your responses so that you can refer back to the reading during the discussion..

Questions for Weber’s (1920) “Prefatory Remarks to Collected Essays in the Sociology of Religion,” pages 359-366:

What is capitalism in general? What are the 3 features of “Western capitalism” (i.e., modern capitalism) in particular?

Questions for Weber’s (1920) The Protestant Ethic and the “Spirit” of Capitalism, pages 8-26 and 105-122:

Weber drew on the writings of Benjamin Franklin (one of the founding fathers of the U.S.) to illustrate the set of ideas he referred to as the spirit of capitalism. What was Franklin’s advice about how people should live their lives?
How did the spirit of capitalism contribute to the development of modern capitalism?
Interpret the following quote: “Even less…would we maintain that the continued existence of today’s capitalism is conditional on the subjective acquisition of these ethical maxims by its individual bearers…Today’s capitalist economic order is a monstrous cosmos, into which the individual is born and which in practice is for him…simply a given, an immutable shell, in which he is obliged to live (Weber 1905, p. 13).
What is the idea of “the calling,” and where does it come from?
According to Weber, what were the beliefs about work in “ascetic Protestantism”? What were the beliefs about the accumulation of wealth?
How is “ascetic Protestantism” (a.k.a. “Puritan asceticism”) related to the spirit of capitalism?