From Calvin to Spinoza: The New Spirit of Capitalism

Max Weber employed the concept of a spirit of capitalism only in the context of the historical emergence of modern capitalism. Following Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello this article presents a transformed concept that applies also to established capitalisms. The concept includes justificatory orders of worth, the “grammars” of which are articulated by political philosophy. According to Boltanski and Chiapello a New Spirit of Capitalism has emerged since the 1980s. The new spirit is founded on a “project-oriented” order of worth, which, they argue, does not yet have a grammar. Extending their argument, Spinoza is proposed as the grammarian. This implies the paradox that Spinoza, the philosopher of immanence, is turned into a grammarian of a transcendent order of worth. However, this paradox exactly preserves a central ingredient of Weber’s concept: transcendence.