>
>In my first post, I wrote: "For Weber, so-called 'Europeans' were
>'rational,' and so-called 'non-Europeans' were either 'irrational' or
>less 'rational,' and he attributes the origin of capitalism to this
>alleged difference: 'European rationality.' In Weber, one cannot but
>see one of the founding fathers of what might be called cultural
>racism." To me, cultural racism is different from but derivative of
>what is called biological racism. Today's racism is mainly cultural
>racism, I think, though via IQ debates, DNA obsessions, etc.,
>biological racism is making a come-back of sorts.
>
I'm afraid Kelly's cruticisms of you are on target, Yoshie. Weber sees two main kings of rationality, Zweckrationalitaet, or instrumental rationality, which he ascribes to _Protestantism,_ not Europeans, and Wertrationalitaet, value rationality, which he ascribes to everybody else; the idea is that Protestantism promoted a sort of means-end calculation important for the development of capitalist institutions. Wertrationalitaet is characterized by less calculating pursuit of nonmaterial goals, such as honor. Weber thought that socialists were driven by W-R, btw. How you can get pro-European racism out of this beats me. Also, you neglect that Weber thought that Z-R was a very mixed blessing, leading ulrimately to the "iron cage" in which he thinks we moderns are caught. --jks _____________________________________________________________________________________ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com