8 ideas
| 21757 | Philosophy is the conceptual essence of the shape of history [Hegel] |
| Full Idea: Philosophy is the supreme blossom - the concept - of the entire shape of history, the consciousness and the spiritual essence of the whole situation, the spirit of the age as the spirit present and aware of itself in thought. | |
| From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Lectures on the History of Philosophy [1830], p.25), quoted by Stephen Houlgate - An Introduction to Hegel 01 | |
| A reaction: This sees philosophy as intrinsically historical, which is a founding idea for 'continental' philosophy. Analysis is tied to science, in which the history of the subject is seen as irrelevant to its truth. Does this mean we can't go back to Aristotle? |
| 20725 | The idea of duty in one's calling haunts us, like a lost religion [Weber] |
| Full Idea: The idea of duty in one's calling prowls about in our lives like the ghost of dead religious beliefs. | |
| From: Max Weber (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism [1904], 5) | |
| A reaction: Great sentence! Vast scholarship boiled down to a simple and disturbing truth. I recognise this in me. Having been 'Head of Philosophy' once is partly what motivates me to compile these ideas. |
| 20722 | Acquisition and low consumption lead to saving, investment, and increased wealth [Weber] |
| Full Idea: If people are acquisitive but consumption is limited, the inevitable result is the accumulation of capital through the compulsion to save. The restraints on consumption naturally served to increase wealth by enabling the productive investment of capital. | |
| From: Max Weber (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism [1904], 5) | |
| A reaction: [compressed. He also quotes John Wesley saying this] In a nutshell, this is how the protestant ethic (esp. if puritan) drives capitalism. It also needs everyone to have a 'calling', and a rebellion against monasticism in favour of worldly work. |
| 20724 | When asceticism emerged from the monasteries, it helped to drive the modern economy [Weber] |
| Full Idea: When asceticism was carried out of the monastic cells into everyday life, and began to dominate worldly morality, it did its part in building the tremendous cosmos of the modern economic order. | |
| From: Max Weber (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism [1904], 5) | |
| A reaction: Since Max Weber's time I should think this is less and less true. If you hunt for ascetics in the modern world, they are probably dropped out, and pursuing green politics. Industrialists are obsessed with property and wine. |
| 20717 | Capitalism is not unlimited greed, and may even be opposed to greed [Weber] |
| Full Idea: Unlimited greed for gain is not in the least identical with capitalism, and is still less in its spirit. Capitalism may even be identical with the restraint, or at least a rational tempering, of this irrational impulse. | |
| From: Max Weber (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism [1904], Author's Intro) | |
| A reaction: The point is that profits have to be re-invested, rather than spent on pleasure. If we are stuck with capitalism we need a theory of Ethical Capitalism. |
| 20718 | Modern western capitalism has free labour, business separate from household, and book-keeping [Weber] |
| Full Idea: The modern Occident has developed a very different form of capitalism: the rational capitalist organisation of free labour …which needed two other factors: the separation of the business from the household, and the closely connected rational book-keeping. | |
| From: Max Weber (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism [1904], Author's Intro) | |
| A reaction: For small businesses the separation has to be maintained by a ruthless effort of imagination. Book-keeping is because the measure of loss and profit is the engine of the whole game. Labour had to be dragged free of family and community. |
| 20719 | Punish the heretic, but be indulgent to the sinner [Weber] |
| Full Idea: The rule of the Catholic church is 'punishing the heretic, but indulgent of the sinner'. | |
| From: Max Weber (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism [1904], 1) | |
| A reaction: Weber cites this as if it is a folklore saying. It seems to fit the teachings of Jesus, who is intensely keen on unwavering faith, but very kind to those who stray morally. Hence Graham Greene novels, all about sinners. |
| 1513 | The Egyptians were the first to say the soul is immortal and reincarnated [Herodotus] |
| Full Idea: The Egyptians were the first to claim that the soul of a human being is immortal, and that each time the body dies the soul enters another creature just as it is being born. | |
| From: Herodotus (The Histories [c.435 BCE], 2.123.2) |