Weber treated the speculator as a charismatic figure combining passion and rationality

Evidence

In this essay, he does not altogether condemn speculation as “immoral gambling”; what interests him is that it both incorporates and exceeds the instrumental rationality of homo economicus. Speculation may be seen, at first sight, as the embodiment of capitalism’s “imitative,” “atavistic,” and “substantive irrationality.” For Weber, however, the speculator substantiates a fascinating, “charismatic,” and socially embedded creature that channels both tradition and personal authority, both passions and interests (Preda 2009, 42; also see Appadurai 2016). — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 226

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s finance/prediction-markets frame: speculation as both rational calculation and charismatic social performance. — connects to: Populist passions animate rather than oppose financial rationality — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living With…, 268; Grassroots populist speculators understood modern financial fictions deeply — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 205; Weber saw the speculator as a charismatic socially embedded figure beyond rational calculation — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 226
• QUESTION: The passage cites Preda 2009 and Appadurai 2016 — worth chasing how contemporary scholars have taken up Weber’s speculator-as-charismatic figure.

Broader Connections

• Populist passions animate rather than oppose financial rationality #corroborates (0.75) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 268
• Grassroots populist speculators understood modern financial fictions deeply #expands (0.72) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 205