From the spirit of capitalism to the entrepreneurial spirit: the consolidation of ideas about entrepreneurial practice in a historical-materialist approach

Abstract

This essay investigates the displacement of the capitalist spirit to the ideology of entrepreneurship through a historical-materialist approach, aiming to apprehend reality from its ontogenetic contradictions and in its social development. This is a theoretical essay beginning from the gap in “critical approaches to entrepreneurship”, contributing to deepen criticism of entrepreneurial practice, situating it before the stage of development of the productive forces in its historical path, and not only limited to capitalist realism that delimits human action by individualist, competitive, or even liberal acting. We emphasize that the spirit of capitalism corresponds to the movement of capital expansion while entrepreneurship is the ideological version of that spirit today, needing a system of ideas that puts it in motion, given its effectiveness as a means for subordination and impoverishment.

Keywords:
Spirit of capitalism; Historical materialism; Criticism of entrepreneurship