This article is an attempt to grasp. Weber's recognition to modern ages.In this article, I am concerned with the conception of
die Versachlichung, because this conception seems to be useful when we examine Weber and Marx on their theories of modern ages.
My analysis consists of the following points.
1. According to Weber, that believers in Protestantism denied to deify creatures was a decisive factor in forming the capitalistic spirit. Thus,
die persönliche Verhältnisse was broken through, and they selected the rational vocational labour as the calling. Such labour is equal to actions based on rules of the things (
die sachliche Stellung), and results in
die sachliche Verhältnisse.
2. Weber divides the modern capitalism into two stages. The first is that of the protestantic asceticism and
die eigentümliche bürgeliche Ethos. In the rising stage of capitalism, citizen's actions were volititional toward
die Versachlichung. In the second stage, the objects (bureaucracy) become autonomous and any forces cannot break them up. In this stage, men become
die Sinnlosigkeit in their personality. Marx, however, regards men in rising stage as an agent of
die sachliche Verhältnisse (the relation of commodities and of money), and thinks that they were involved in the submission to things in the first stage as well as in the second.
3. Weber regards that in the second stage it is impossible to break through the irrational despotism to men by things. I think that Weber's criticism toward this despotism remains unessential, because, from the economic point of view, his criticism is based on the existence of the spirit as a creative ethos. Marx considers proletariat as an agent to acquire the whole of higher productive forces and general communications. What Marx understood to be able to
aufheben as
die Versachlichung Weber assumed as the fate of rationalization.
View full abstract