[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985) › c17.7 # The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c17.7 The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c17.7 - **Language:** English ### [c17.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c17.7) This does not mean, of course, that Weber was wrong in juxtaposing the two opposite principles of magico-ritualism and ethical rationalism. He shows himself, moreover, most sensitive to the tensions resulting from their competition and interpenetration.¹² However, in his view, this tension is blunted by an attitude of relative indifference or passivity toward the mundane order.¹³ Deprived of its absolutist claim to transform the world, ethical rationalism gives way to the relativistic accommodation of an "organicist" social ethic.¹⁴ In the Indian case, however, Weber argues that the perfect fit, the \*sehr besondersartige Verknüpfung\*,¹⁵ of caste and karma did not produce just another accommodation but an absolute and unassailable social order. Far from prising it open, the ethical rationalism of the karma theodicy closed the mundane order of caste and sealed it with the prospect of ultimate salvation. The question is, Can we accept this monolithically coherent picture? - [Previous: c17.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c17.6) - [Next: c17.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c17.8) - [Up: c17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c17) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c17.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c17.7) · Pramāṇa