Weber's Protestant-Ethic Thesis, the Critics, and Adam Smith

The aim of this paper is to test Max Weber's Protestant-ethic thesis. The thesis is described in a systematic way, followed by a detailed discussion of the critiques of Gordon Marshall and Malcolm MacKinnon. Their critique challenges Weber's thesis in relevant parts, but although I largely agree with their arguments, they do not lead to a clear verification or falsification. I shall furthermore present a new test of the Protestant-ethic thesis by investigating whether or not the founder of modern economics, with its spirit of modern capitalism, had a connection to Neo-Calvinism – as we should expect, if Weber was right. The result of my test is that Adam Smith was a Neo-Calvinist and that I have therefore failed to falsify the Protestant-ethic thesis.