The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c17.6

c17.6

This linkage of caste and karma, Weber insists, is a pure product of rational ethical thought.¹⁰ The caste order is in the last resort explained as the junction of two tendencies whose opposition is fundamental in Weber's thought. On the one hand, he analyzes caste society in magico-religious terms and qualifies it as thoroughly traditionalist and antirational.¹¹ On the other hand, it is inextricably linked with the ethical rationalism of the brahmanic karma theodicy. The remarkable point is that it is exactly this otherwise volatile mixture that is made responsible for the caste system's exceptional coherence and stability. If there is a paradox here, Weber does not seem to have been aware of it.