Вернер Зомбарт как критик техники

Социологическое обозрение. 2024. Т. 23. № 2. С. 260–282.

Mikhailovsky A.

The article provides an analysis of W. Sombart’s conception of modern capitalism in the aspect of cultural critique. The first hypothesis is that Sombart’s critique of technology is a critique of modern capitalism. The ideal type of critique of technology is defined by the instrumental interpretation of technology and the belief that mechanization and massification of modern society, alienation of labor, psychological degradation, etc. are consequences of the inversion of the Zweck-Mittel-relationship (this views technology as basically a means to an end).

The second hypothesis is that Sombart proposes a version of the “other modernity,” which means an attempt to put technology in the service of the bourgeois order through its subordination to ethical principles. Acceptance of technological advances is accompanied by concerns about its negative impact on the public and private spheres. The report “Technology and Culture” (1910) poses the problem of the “cultural value of technology”.

The third hypothesis deals with the explanation of this version of the “other modernity” by a compensatory interest (it does not reject industrialization as such, but points to defects in the late capitalist development that require correction). The study identifies two different diachronic paradigms in the conservative thought in Germany before WWI and, accordingly, in the interwar period: 1) a paradigm of compensation and 2) a proactive paradigm of contributing to the national renewal, setting new guidelines in understanding the fundamental conditions of modernity. In the 1920s and 30s, Sombart goes beyond the critique of culture and demonstrates the attitude of proactive modernism (“German socialism” with planned economy and technocratic management that favor the common good over individual profit).

Keywords: Вернер Зомбарт, mechanization, механизация, Werner Sombart, критика культуры, modern capitalism, cultural critique, critique of technology, cultural value of technology, современный капитализм, критика техники, культурная ценность техники