A Comparison of Some of the Themes of Irrationality, Illusion and Mystification Identified or Inferred by Karl Marx and Max Weber in Their Explanations of the Rise of Capitalism

Abstract

This comparative study was undertaken in the belief that our understanding of the modern economic spirit, volatility of global markets and political activism can be furthered by revisiting Marx’s and Weber’s sociological, philosophical, economic and religious explanations of the rise of capitalism. The author identifies and reconsiders much of the scholarly literature on the argument that there are themes of illusion, mystification and irrationality in the classical theorists’ explanations and that the themes are antagonists in much of the original writings.