Introduction
This article, in line with its overarching aim of revisiting classical concepts in the social sciences through insights from recent developments in the cognitive sciences, employs the framework of embodied cognition- a perspective that has become a prominent theoretical approach in cognitive science over recent decades and emphasizes the complex interplay among mind, body, and environment. Drawing on four key interpretations of embodied cognition in cognitive anthropology and sociology, and using a descriptive-analytical method, the study examines the relationship between Protestant ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism, demonstrating how the ethics provide the conditions for the emergence of the figure that Max Weber terms the Berufsmensch. A secondary objective of the research is to revisit and reinterpret Weber’s concept of Habitus and to analyze its connections with related notions such as Gesinnung, Spirit, and Lebensführung, with particular attention to Weber’s seminal work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
The findings suggest that religious teachings- such as the avoidance of luxury, diligence, temporal discipline, and the restriction of bodily pleasures- are internalized through bodily experience and manifest in individuals’ everyday behaviors and habitus. In this sense, the body serves as the primary medium through which Protestant ethics and values are transmitted and embodied. Furthermore, following the principle of the embodiment of socio-cultural activities, these values also shape social actions. Practices such as strict temporal organization, regulated speech, structured and limited interpersonal interactions, and abstention from consumerism illustrate the ways in which the body is disciplined within social contexts and how ethical teachings become institutionalized through collective behaviors and activities. Thus, social activities are not merely products of abstract ethical values and teachings but are fundamentally shaped by the body’s role in organizing daily life and labor.
Moreover, according to the principle of the external embodiment of cognition, ethical values and norms are reproduced through tools, objects, spatial arrangements, and temporal structures within the environment. Accounting offices, work schedules, workplaces, and domestic architecture function as extensions of the individual’s mind and body, reinforcing values such as order, diligence, and frugality and exerting a formative influence upon bodily conduct. Ultimately, based on the principle of the cognitive embodiment of the collective unconscious, these values and norms become gradually internalized within the body and psyche, transforming into Habitus and dispositions. Consequently, even after the decline of their original religious framework, the bodies and minds of modern individuals continue to reproduce the Habitus and dispositions of the Berufsmensch, rendering Protestant ethics and their associated modes of conduct a “second nature” of the Fachmensch.

Materials & Methods
The present study, grounded in the embodied cognition framework- which emphasizes the reciprocal interaction among mind, body, and environment- conducts an analytical examination of the subject. Drawing on the four principal interpretations of this approach within the literature of the cognitive social sciences, the research employs a descriptive-analytical method to develop its conceptual and theoretical analysis. Owing to the limited availability of Persian-language sources in this field, the study relies predominantly on English-language articles and references for its foundational concepts. Nevertheless, this limitation also creates an opportunity for interested scholars to broaden the scope of research and to contribute to the development and enrichment of the existing corpus of local academic literature
Discussion & Result
The analysis of Protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism through the frameworks of embodied cognition and Weber’s concept of Habitus demonstrate that religious beliefs function not merely as abstract convictions but as internalized norms and values that shape economic and social behavior. Values such as hard work, time discipline, thrift, and personal diligence are not only embedded at cognitive and psychological levels but also sediment in bodily practices and everyday habitus, becoming incorporated into one’s dispositions and conduct. This process establishes the groundwork for the formation of the “spirit,” or the capitalist Habitus, which-once institutionalized-gives rise to the Berufsmensch.
The embodied cognition approach further shows that cultural and religious meanings do not originate solely from mental processes but also emerge through bodily and lived experiences situated within social and cultural interactions. The body functions as a central medium of meaning-making, wherein everyday actions, habitual practices, and bodily forms of discipline carry deep ethical and religious significance. From this standpoint, the Habitus of the Berufsmensch encompasses not only a constellation of attitudes and beliefs but also a system of bodily Habitus and patterned practices through which meaning is produced in daily life.
Moreover, the analysis of the principle of the “embodiment of socio-cultural activities” indicates that social practices—such as labor, temporal discipline, and forms of social interaction—are shaped through the body’s subjection to ethical and religious frameworks. Moral values and norms become materialized through tools, spatial arrangements, and temporal structures (“externalized embodiment of cognition”) and are gradually internalized within the body and psyche, eventually transforming into Habitus and dispositions (“cognitive unconscious embodiment”).
Conclusion
Thus, protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism are reproduced and reinforced not only at cognitive and psychological levels but also through the body and the socio-material environment. Orderliness, asceticism, and industriousness are inscribed onto the body through architecture, tools, temporal organization, and everyday routines and these dispositions persist in behavior and within the collective unconscious even after the decline of explicit religious belief. This analysis illustrates that modern capitalism operates not merely as an economic system but as an “embodied order” in which values and habitus are embedded and sustained across bodies, material artifacts, spatial configurations, and the collective unconscious