Criticism And Transcendence:a Modern Perspective Of ’Weber Proposition’

Max Weber is a famous thinker in the 20th Century, and his status in western sociology can be compared with Carle Max, but in China, he was gotten attention in the nearly twenty years. Weber is a specialist in Economic Ethics and Religious Sociology. He studied the world’s traditional religion and its relationship with the modern economy, and then, he found an interesting problem, which is the truth that only western Protestantism gave birth to the capitalist economy, while other traditional religion failed to create capitalism. Weber’s perspective that combines capitalism and religious ethics has aroused wide attention, and it also caused people to discuss ’Weber Proposition’.In Chinese research situation, ’Weber Proposition’ mainly refers to the problem that western Protestantism promoted the birth to the capitalist economy, while other traditional religion failed to create capitalism. This thesis is around the theme with the logic of ’to discover the problem-to analyze of the problem-to solve the problem’. We discuss the controversy and criticism of ’Weber Proposition’ to explore the value of the thinking, and to draw on contemporary Chinese construction.Firstly, this article expounds the background and general definition of "Weber Proposition". By discussing the two books of Weber——"The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" and "Confucianism and Taoism", we analyze Weber’s view of the relationship of western capitalism and the Protestant ethic, and his view of Chinese traditional religion, to make a original and specific interpretation of ’Weber Proposition’. Then, I systematic the criticism of ’Weber Proposition’ according to the tightness of the logic, from the theoretical vulnerability such as idealism tendency, attribution of simplification and western centrism, to the practical challenges of Confucian capitalism with Asia’s economic boom, to the author’s "after criticism", pointing out the omissions of the logic and content. Finally, we make a new era correction of "Weber Proposition", aiming to surpass the limit, and have some implications for economic performance and social construction in contemporary China. I hope it can help people clarify the relationship of Chinese traditional culture and contemporary Chinese modernization, and build a healthy socialism with Chinese characteristics.