CHAPTER EIGHT

CONCLUSIONS

“Destinies” of Human Societies

Th e idea of destiny or fate can be applied to analyze and predict the evolution of modern nations or societies. Th is yields the concept of national or societal destiny or fate, as distinguished from individual destinies. Hence, this is a sociological, thus scientifi c and collective, not a theological or transcendental and individual, concept. In this sense, destiny or fate as applied to societies is a synonym, analogy, or meta- phor for societal determination or codetermination (not determinism) in respect of certain social determinants, in this case Calvinism, includ- ing Puritanism, in Europe and America. It is also synonymous and analogous with related ideas such as what Weber calls, referring to Calvinism, mastery of the world and contemporary sociologists (Ingle- hart and Baker 2000) term historical path-dependence, societal legacy or heritage, impact, infl uence, function, or role with respect to such social factors. In this sense, the concept of societal destiny or fate can be adopted and considered as scientifi cally useful and legitimate for analyzing and predicting the evolution of modern societies, including Europe and America in connection with Calvinism. If so, there is per- haps such thing as the destiny of nations or societies, as demonstrated by America in relation to Calvinism through Puritanism. In particular, Weber while analyzing Calvinism in relation to capi- talism and modernity provides sociological usefulness and legitimacy to the concept of national destiny or societal fate with respect to con- temporary Western societies. Th us, he observes that the “most fateful force in our modern life” is capitalism to the eff ect that the “fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all by the disenchantment of the world”, as capitalist processes and outcomes. In general, he adopts such expressions as the “commu- nity of political destiny”, “the destiny of religions”, and the like. Also, Comte employs the expression “collective destinies of mankind” through the “march of one unbroken sequence” from its “primitive theological” to its “transient metaphysical” and to its “fi nal positive” stage. And, his French contemporary Tocqueville gives sociological usefulness and 576 chapter eight legitimacy to the concept with respect to American society by explicitly using the expression “the destiny of America”. At the minimum, Weber, Comte, and Tocqueville imply that the concept of societal destiny in a strict sociological meaning—that is, social codetermination or path-dependence—thus devoid of theologi- cal and religious connotations, is not, as it might seem at fi rst glance, metaphysical or fatalistic and unscientifi c, but can be used at least as an analogy or metaphor in scientifi c analysis and discourse. Th is also applies to contemporary sociologists (e.g., Habermas 2001) defi ning the modern nation as a “pre-political community of shared destiny” and using the term “fate” in respect of contemporary developed and underdeveloped societies (Bendix 1984). By analogy to its general meaning of predestination and/or predeter- mination, the idea of destiny or fate when specifi cally applied to socie- ties or nations implies societal predestination or codetermination, involving multiple determinants, not a single one. And, it is Calvinism itself that is the exemplary case of the idea of predestination or prede- termination within Protestantism and Christianity and even among world religions (alongside, in part, Islam, as Weber implies), though in a theological or non-sociological, thus non-scientifi c sense. Still, the latter can serve as an instructive analogy and metaphor for its socio- logical and scientifi c meaning and form. Hence, Calvinism’s doctrine of predestination or predetermina - tion (terms distinguished but also sometimes used interchangeably by Weber and others) can be usefully and legitimately applied to analyzing the long-term evolution or path-dependence of modern societies, including Europe and America. Weber states that it is in Calvinism that “the idea of the determinism or predestination from all eternity of both human life on this earth and human fate in the world beyond comes in its strongest possible expression”. Th is implies the ideas of “predetermi- nation” understood, in Weber’s view, as “applied to fate in this world, not in the next” or the “religious determination of life-conduct” and of “predestination” in the sense of “human fate in the world beyond”.1

1 Weber distinguishes the doctrine of predestination with its “terrible seriousness”, almost exclusively attributed to Calvinism, from that of “predetermination” or deter- minism associated with other world religions like Islam. Th us, he remarks that the “Mohammedan idea was that of predetermination, not predestination, and was applied to fate in this world, not in the next. In consequence, the most important thing, the proof of the believer in predestination, played no part in Islam”, unlike in Calvinism