ach id equally possible, but each, if it does not serve as the preparation, but as the conclusion of an investigation, accomplishes equally little in the interest of historical truth (Weber 183).
What Weber is after is a portrait of the development of Western civilization as a product of both religious and materialistic beliefs and practices. He wants to discover specifically how capitalism developed as a response to dramatic changes in religious beliefs.
Capitalism, says Weber in his Introduction, is first and last the pursuit of profit. However, he argues that it is not a pursuit of profit for the mere sake of profit, but rather the pursuit of profit for what that profit symbolizes. In the West, this capitalistic pursuit has developed into a system not experienced elsewhere in the world: "the rational capitalistic organization
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