Romanticism and The Consumer Ethic: Intimations of a Weber-Style Thesis

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Abstract
Recognition of the fact that the modern consumption ethic has its origins in the late eighteenth century poses the intriguing question of what cultural forces served to accomplish the rejection of traditional patterns of consumption. Clearly The Protestant Ethic served primarily to inhibit consumption and could not have fulfilled this function. However, following Weber's style of analysis, the “spirit” of modern consumerism is identified as resting upon an attitude of restless desire and discontent coupled with the treatment of consumption as an end-in-itself. Romanticism, conceived of as a cultural movement which introduced the modern doctrines of self-expression and fulfillment, is then specified as the most likely source of an “ethic” which legitimated such a “spirit.”

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