Discussion Question 4
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber
Directions: After reading the lecture, answer the question below. Your answer is due no later than Thursday, Mar. 8.
Your responses to other students' answers are due by midnight on Saturday, Mar. 10. In order to get the full 20 points, you MUST respond thoughtfully to at least 3 or 4 other people's postings.
Please answer the question as thoughtfully as possible, after reading the lecture. Then post your answer to the English 207 Message Board by the deadline.
Click on the button below to visit your English 207 Message Board:
Remember: This discussion question is worth a possible 20 points. Late answers will receive 0 points. Points will be assigned according to the thoughtfulness of your answers, not by whether they are "right" or not, since sometimes there is no "right" answer. Just be sure your ideas are supported by the material in the readings.
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber
At the end of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber quotes Goethe in describing the modern world to which capitalism has brought us: "Specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart; this nullity imagines that it has attained a level of civilization never before achieved." Do you agree with his assessment of the effect of the Protestant Work Ethic?
--The mural on this page is called "Rural Highway." It's the mural painted for the Middleport, N.Y. Post Office by Marianne Appel in 1941. More information about this mural can be found at Western New York Heritage Press.
--During the Depression in the 1930s and early 1940s, the U.S. government commissioned a number of murals for post offices across the United States. Many of these were quite amazing. To read more about them, CLICK HERE.