Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Marx, Weber, Schumpeter, and Polanyi

This paper aims at understanding the unstable character of the capitalist society, by drawing upon some respective work of Marx, Weber, Schumpeter, and Polanyi. All four, it is argued, share similar visions towards capitalism and contend that the working of capitalism undermines its own institutional structure. The paper advances three theses: all four thinkers conceive human history as displaying both human self expression and the loss of freedom due to increasing rationalization and alienation; according to them capitalism creates both the preconditions of self-realization and rationalization at once; and they also believe that the very success of capitalism is the basic cause of its failure