Does contemporary capitalism – this “self-propelled” and “omnivorous” system – still have a spirit? Or, to put it another way: does it still need any spirit at all?
The term “spirit of capitalism”, as defined by Max Weber and Werner Sombart, refers to the concept of an individual, a social actor with specific psychological dispositions, those Seelenstimmungen, which allow them to engage in profit-seeking activities, but also translate into a certain ethos or a set of moral rules associated with these activities. The spirit therefore implies a certain socially rooted form that determines the behavior of actors. But what if contemporary technicized capitalism has already managed to “devour” society, thus becoming independent of all social forms and rules, producing its own (virtual) actors and reducing societies to dependent consumers?