Good Works & what Weber actually wrote

[jbor]

on 20/3/02 5:47 PM, Otto at o.sell at telda.net wrote:

snip

> JWL's
> business has a lot to do with metal, is "against living Bodies,-- cutting,
> chaining, penetrating sort of activities,-- a considerable Sector of the
> Iron Market, indeed, directed to offenses against Human, and of course,
> animal flesh (...)" (412.3-6),

He is distinguishing "between the Metal itself, and the Forms it happens to
end up in", however, and it seems important that this distinction is not
overlooked. (412.1-2) His mention of the "invisible Grasp of the Magnetic"
(412.7) certainly goes back to the "Invisible Hand" metaphor, though I get
the impression that it's more a secular revelation than a religious one
which he has experienced. It's the spectacle of industrialisation - the
Industrial Revolution - which so impresses "little JWL" here I think.

> but nevertheless he draws some kind of
> religious experience of "purity" out of this (6-9), a point of view that is
> rejected and criticised by Cherrycoke (11-21).

Wicks's critique of John's reverie brings home another important point: the
way that slavery and economics were inextricably connected by this time, and
how it's impossible to separate the one from the other when analysing the
causes of the Civil War.

best