宗教倫理と利害状況 : ウェーバーの宗教倫理論研究ノート
スポンサーリンク
概要
- 論文の詳細を見る
It is well known that Max Weber claimed that Protestant religious ethics played an important role in the period when modern capitalist society appeared in the Western world. In his masterpiece "Protestant Ethics and the 'Spirit' of Capitalism," he proposed a 'spiritualistic' interpretation of history, which stood against Marxists' historical materialism. However, Weber himself was neither a materialist nor a spiritualist in regard to the understanding of the relation between human thought and social 'interest situations.' Indeed, he highly estimates certain methodological theories, which propose that social situations should determine religious thought, but he radically criticizes those theories because they wrongly claim that every religious thought or ethic is only an ideological 'function' of social interest situations. Therefore, he published the above paper in order to give a dramatic example that falsified the validity of those theories. Now, as for the comparative study of religious ethics, he pays particular attention to the famous 'Resentment' theory of F. Nietsche, who interprets Christian morality as the product of the 'revolt of slaves,' namely, that of the bitter resentment of weak and feeble people against strong and noble beings. On the one hand, Weber understands the great significance of the Nietschian scheme of interpretation, on the other hand, he cautions us against applying Nietsche's scheme to all religious ethics. Indeed, as for Judaism and its morality, Weber acknowledges the validity of the Nietschian interpretation, but he radically rejects that interpretation for the ethical teachings of Jesus and primitive Christianity. He rather stresses the fact that the promises of the New Religion have succeeded in extinguishing those resentment-feelings of the Judaic parish people. Generally speaking, according to Weber, the individual character of certain religious ethics have been formed or constructed in complicated situations under 'their own laws of evolution.' Therefore, he describes, from his point of view, the complicated historical evolutions of 'theodicies,' which have subtle relations with the resentment-feelings of plebeian people. In this paper, we follow his arguments step by step in order to confirm the originality of his theory and thoughts about the relation between certain religious ethics and social - material and psychological - interest situations. As a result, we believe, the full significance of the so-called 'ambiguity' of his methodological attitude and thought can be realized.
- 東京女子大学の論文
- 2002-03-07