Werner Sombart’s Historical Theory of the Formation of the Capitalistic Spirit

Its System of Argumentation Based on the Concept of Understanding

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyze the theory regarding the formation of Werner Sombart’s “capitalistic spirit” from a perspective intrinsic to his economic thought. Prior research has confirmed that Sombart’s argument was based on a problem setting that was different from Max Weber’s. However, despite the recent progress in research on Sombart’s economic thought, no study has systematically examined his proof structure by analyzing his various writings in a unified manner. In this paper, the question I aim to resolve is twofold. First, for Sombart, what kind of methodology was believed to provide proof of the formation of the capitalistic spirit? Second, what historical phenomenon did Sombart envision as the emergence of the capitalistic spirit? My research helps me arrive at the following answers. First, Sombart believed that by using a methodology that relied on his own concept of “understanding,” he could describe the “spirit” unique to the capitalistic era. The characteristics of his methodology and its theoretical limitations are explored mainly by reconstructing the arguments of The Three National Economies (1930). Second, Sombart assumed that the simultaneous emergence in Europe of both the “affirmation of profit” and “economic rationalism” formed the capitalist spirit. The coherence of Sombart’s argument is clarified through a textual analysis of his main work Modern Capitalism, with particular attention paid to the revisions undertaken between the first (1902) and second editions (1916–1927). Through a comprehensive analysis of Sombart’s works, I thus demonstrate that his theory deserves consideration in its own right as an original development of the Geistesgeschichte tradition since Wilhelm Dilthey.