Confucianism, community, capitalism : Chen Lai and the spirit of Max Weber
Ever since Confucianism rose to the forefront of discussion among sociologists, scholars of religion, philosophers, and area specialists during the 1980s, debates on the topic have been characterized by a central tension between Confucianism as a moral project to create a fiduciary community thro...
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| Format: | Book Chapter |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SUNY Press
2019
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/107571 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/50318 http://www.sunypress.edu/p-6437-confucianism-for-the-contempora.aspx |
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| Institution: | Nanyang Technological University |
| Language: | English |
| Summary: | Ever since Confucianism rose to the forefront of discussion among sociologists, scholars of
religion, philosophers, and area specialists during the 1980s, debates on the topic have been
characterized by a central tension between Confucianism as a moral project to create a
fiduciary community through self-cultivation and Confucianism as a sociopolitical argument
about the role of values in economic development. The tension between these two forms of
Confucianism is not inherent to Confucianism. Rather, it originates in Max Weber’s critique
of modernity, a critique that was influential in shaping the debate on the role of Confucianism
in the modern world. Weber’s critique was at the same time concerned with the negative
consequences of modernization-as-rationalization-the “iron cage of modernity”- and with
the role of religious values in capitalist modernization. Whereas the former leads to the
question of how to lead a meaningful life in a rational world devoid of meaning and what
values could play a role in this, the latter leads to the question of the instrumental role of
values in the process of rationalization. As for the latter, Weber is most famous for exploring
this question in his The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, in which he argued that
the Protestant ethic-duty, discipline, and rational behavior-had benefited the rise of
capitalism. |
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