2. If we live by market values alone, do we lose part of our humanity? In Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the ‘Spirit’ of Capitalism (1905), the spirit of capitalism refers to new thinking which inspired entrepreneurs into activity conducive to capital accumulation. The secular thinking of European Enlightenment justified profit-making activities as wealth became a criterion of the common good. Whatever served the individual served society. This new thinking lifted the traditional moral condemnation of profit and legitimized the tendency for rationalization which for Weber lies at the root of modernity (see Chapter 3). Importantly, Weber construed these new ideas justifying and supporting profit making as an ‘ideology’ – a set of shared beliefs and values, inscribed in organizations, and bound up with actions