Affinities

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Affinities

In the philosophy of Max Weber, the relationship between Protestant culture and capitalism. According to Weber, affinities exist between Protestantism and capitalism because the former provides a cultural framework for the latter to grow. This is why, in Weber's estimation, Protestant regions like Germany and Britain prospered more economically in the 19th century than Catholic areas like Ireland or Italy.

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Not less does the brain of Davy or of Gay-Lussac, from childhood exploring the affinities and repulsions of particles, anticipate the laws of organization.

Yet every history should be written in a wisdom which divined the range of our affinities and looked at facts as symbols.

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When I stand among these mighty Leviathan skeletons, skulls, tusks, jaws, ribs, and vertebrae, all characterized by partial resemblances to the existing breeds of sea-monsters; but at the same time bearing on the other hand similar affinities to the annihilated antichronical Leviathans, their incalculable seniors; I am, by a flood, borne back to that wondrous period, ere time itself can be said to have begun; for time began with man.