Max Weber: Science as a Vocation—100 Years Later
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- Published: 29 May 2019
- Volume 2 , pages 499–508, ( 2019 )
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- Gerhard Benetka 1 &
- Anna Schor-Tschudnowskaja 1
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Exactly 100 years ago, Max Weber outlined in his lecture “Science as a Vocation,” what the material and above all the inner meaning of scientific action comprises. We would like to question some of Weber’s basic concepts and further develop some of his basic ideas in order to see more clearly what we as professors and social scientists are doing—in the present field of science, out of which reality is more and more displaced, or better: people’s concrete practice of life seems to have been thinned out. At the center of our considerations are the terms “progress,” “rationalization,” and “meaning,” and we will try to show how they are based on the self-conception of science and what consequences this has for scientific practice. Our central argument is that scientific practice takes part in the production of social reality and that it is only in the awareness of this in which scientific practice renders “intellectual accountability” ( intellektuelle Rechenschaft ) (Weber).
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In his lecture, Weber talks about how his own academic career is largely based on such mere chance and proclaims that: “I know of hardly any career on earth where chance plays such a role. I may say so all the more since I personally owe it to some mere accidents that during my very early years I was appointed to a full professorship in a discipline in which men of my generation undoubtedly had achieved more that I had. And, indeed, I fancy, on the basis of this experience, that I have a sharp eye for the undeserved fate of the many whom accident has cast in the opposite direction and who within this selective apparatus in spite of all their ability do not attain the positions that are due them.” (Weber 1946 /1919, 2)
E.g., Karin Leitner ( 1996 ). “Die Prüfungstaxen-Millionäre” [The examination-millionairs], News 46: 36.
On falsification in science in general, Di Trocchio ( 1994 ) is still worth reading.
Own translation: German original: “genauso fadenscheinig [hielt] wie das schwächliche Lichtlein, das vom wissenschaftlichen Denken im an sich dunklen Strom des unendlich Wirklichen angezündet wird” (Lehmann 1995 , 170).
Own translation: German original: “Damit der Wissenschaftler zu seinem Wissen kommt, muss er das Unendliche verendlichen.”
Own translation: German original: “Alle denkende Erkenntnis der unendlichen Wirklichkeit durch den endlichen Menschengeist beruht […] auf der stillschweigenden Voraussetzung, daß jeweils nur ein endlicher Teil derselben den Gegenstand wissenschaftlicher Erfassung bilden, daß nur er ‘wesentlich’im Sinne von ‘wissenswert’sein solle.”
Boltanski in the sense of Wittgenstein describes “world” as “everything that is the case” or “anything that could be the case, which points to the impossibility of recognizing and controlling the world as a whole” (Boltanski 2015 , 24–25). Own translation. German original: “alles, was der Fall sein könnte, was auf die Unmöglichkeit verweist, die Welt insgesamt zu erkennen und zu beherrschen.”
It is interesting that sociologists like Boltanski quite naturally resort to psychological theories, while conversely psychological theories seldom refer to sociological ones.
Own translation: German original: “Einerseits hat sich die Realität zweifellos niemals als so organisiert, robust und dadurch so vorhersehbar dargestellt wie in den modernen westlichen Gesellschaften. Aber andererseits, und vielleicht aus denselben Gründen, tritt ihre Fragilität oder das, was man dafür hält, in den Vordergrund und scheint eine noch nie dagewesene Verunsicherung hervorzurufen. Ich denke, dass der Kriminalroman diese Verunsicherung inszeniert und dass der Hauptgrund für seinen Erfolg darin zu suchen ist, wie kunstvoll er diese Verunsicherung in Bezug auf die Realität der Realität zum Ausdruck bringt.” (Ibid., 46)
Boltanski, L. (2015). Rätsel und Komplotte. Kriminalroman, Paranoia, moderne Gesellschaft [Riddles and plots. Detective novel, paranoia, modern society] . Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
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Foucault, M. (1977). Der Wille zum Wissen. Sexualität und Wahrheit, Bd. 1 [The will to knowledge. Sexuality and Truth, vol. 1] . Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
Foucault, M. (1999). In Verteidigung der Gesellschaft. Vorlesungen am Collège de France 1975/1976 [In defense of society. Lectures at the Collège de France 1975/1976] . Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
Foucault, M. (2006a). Sicherheit, Territorium, Bevölkerung. Geschichte der Gouvernementalität I. Vorlesungen am Collège de France 1977/1978 [Security, territory, population. History of governmentality I. Lectures at the Collège de France 1977/1978] . Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
Foucault, M. (2006b). Die Geburt der Biopolitik. Geschichte der Gouvernementalität II. Vorlesung am Collège de France 1978/1979 [The birth of biopolitics. History of Governmentality II. Lecture at the Collège de France 1978/1979] . Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
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Leitner, K. (1996). Die Prüfungstaxen-Millionäre [The examination-fee millionares]. News, 46 , 36.
Weber, M. (1946/1919). Science as a vocation. In H. H. Gerth & C. Wright Mills (Eds.), From Max Weber: essays in sociology (pp. 129–156). New York: Oxford University Press http://anthropos-lab.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Weber-Science-as-a-Vocation.pdf . Accessed 22 Apr 2019.
Weber, M. (1985/1904). Die “Objektivität” sozialwissenschaftlicher und sozialpolitischer Erkenntnis [The “objectivity” of socio-scientific and socio-political knowledge]. In M. Weber (Ed.), Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Wissenschaftslehre [Collected Essays on Epistemology] (pp. 146–214). Tübingen: Mohr.
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Benetka, G., Schor-Tschudnowskaja, A. Max Weber: Science as a Vocation—100 Years Later. Hu Arenas 2 , 499–508 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-019-00070-0
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Received : 12 February 2019
Revised : 09 May 2019
Accepted : 10 May 2019
Published : 29 May 2019
Issue Date : December 2019
DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-019-00070-0
Max Weber: Science as a Vocation—100 Years Later
Exactly 100 years ago, Max Weber outlined in his lecture "Science as a Vocation," what the material and above all the inner meaning of scientific action comprises. We would like to question some of Weber's basic concepts and further develop some of his basic ideas in order to see more clearly what we as professors and social scientists are doing-in the present field of science, out of which reality is more and more displaced, or better: people's concrete practice of life seems to have been thinned out. At the center of our considerations are the terms "progress," "rationalization," and "meaning," and we will try to show how they are based on the self-conception of science and what consequences this has for scientific practice. Our central argument is that scientific practice takes part in the production of social reality and that it is only in the awareness of this in which scientific practice renders "intellectual accountability" (intellektuelle Rechenschaft) (Weber).
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From H.H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (Translated and edited), From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, pp. 129-156, New York: Oxford University Press, 1946. You wish me to speak about 'Science as a Vocation.' Now, we political economists have a pedantic custom, which I should like to follow, of always beginning with the external conditions.
This essay presents the context of and motivation for Max Weber's 1917 lecture "Science as a Vocation". It provides an overview of the structure of the argument presented by Weber, and indicates the way in which it draws upon elements of his earlier work in outlining the nature of modern scientific engagement and the relation of the world of science to that of human values.
Abstract. This essay situates Weber's 1917 lecture Science as a Vocation in relevant historical contexts. The first context is thought about the changing nature of the scientific role and its place in institutions of higher education, and attention is drawn to broadly similar sentiments expressed by Thorstein Veblen.
Max Weber - Wissenschaft als Beruf - Seite. Science as a Vocation (German: Wissenschaft als Beruf) is the text of a lecture given in 1917 at Munich University by German sociologist and political economist Max Weber. The original version was published in German, but at least two translations in English exist. Science as a Vocation is the first of the two "Vocation" lectures Weber delivered.
From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, translated, edited and with an introduction by H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (New York: Oxford University Press, 1946), pp. 134-156. Wissenschaft als Beruf,' Gesammelte Aufsaetze zur Wissen- schaftslehre (Tübingen, 1922), pp. 524-55.
From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology . DOI link for From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology ... SCIENCE AND POLITICS. chapter IV ... chapter V | 28 pages Science as a Vocation . Abstract . part | 2 pages. PART II: POWER. chapter VI | 21 pages Structures of Power . Abstract . chapter VII | 16 pages Class, Status ...
Excerpted essay in From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, trans. and ed. H.H. Gerth and C.W. Mills (New York: Oxford University Press, 1946), pp. 137-144; ... Download to read the full chapter text. Chapter PDF. Similar content being viewed by others. Max Weber: Science as a Vocation—100 Years Later Article 29 May 2019.
One hundred years after Max Weber raised these questions, they are still compelling ones. The four articles in this Special Issue offer four completely distinct, and new, perspectives on Weber's Science as a Vocation lecture, which their authors connect to current debates in the history, sociology, and anthropology of science.
It has been 100 years since the death of Max Weber and 102 years since the publication of his classic essay "Science as a Vocation." I review here several of the main ideas advanced in the essay. ... Department of Sociology, Princeton University/University of Miami, Princeton, NJ, USA.
Max Weber (1864-1920) was one of the most prolific and influential sociologists of the twentieth century. ... Science as a Vocation . 129: POWER . 157: Structures of Power . 159: The Economic Foundations of Imperilaism . 162: The Nation . 171: ... From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology A galaxy book Routledge Classics in Sociology Series Routledge ...
Abstract. Exactly 100 years ago, Max Weber outlined in his lecture "Science as a Vocation, what the. ". material and above all the inner meaning of scientific action comprises. We would like to question some of Webers basic concepts and further develop some of his basic ideas in order. '.
Exactly 100 years ago, Max Weber outlined in his lecture "Science as a Vocation," what the material and above all the inner meaning of scientific action comprises. We would like to question some of Weber's basic concepts and further develop some of his basic ideas in order to see more clearly what we as professors and social scientists are doing—in the present field of science, out of ...
Abstract. This essay situates Weber's 1917 lecture Science as a Vocation in relevant historical contexts. The first context is thought about the changing nature of the scientific role and its place in institutions of higher education, and attention is drawn to broadly similar sentiments expressed by Thorstein Veblen.
Weber, Max, 1864-1920. 2. Sociology—Germany—History. 3. Sociology—History. ... From "Prefatory Remarks" to Collected Essays on the Sociology of Religion 53 From The Religion of India 64 From Economy and ... Max Weber observed in "Science as a Vocation": In science each of us knows that what he has accomplished will be antiquated ...
You wish me to spe~. about 'Science as a Vocation.' Now, we political economists have a pedantic custom, which I should like to follow, of always beginning with the external conditions. In this ca~e, we begin with the question: What are the conditions of science as a vocation in the material sense of the term?
The book concludes with a substantial essay on the current significance of the lecture, which discusses its relevance to the debates about the nature of science as a cultural phenomenon; the disjunction between science and nature; Weber's conception of the disenchantment of the world; the division of scientific labour; and the fundamental ...
Max Weber's lecture 'Science as a Vocation' is a classic of social thought, in which central questions are posed about the nature of social and political thought and action. The lecture has often taken to be a summation of Weber's thought. It can also be argued that, together with the responses of its admirers and critics, it provides a focus for discussion of the nature of modernity and its ...
Computers, Technology and Science; Music, Arts & Culture; News & Public Affairs; Spirituality & Religion; Podcasts; Radio News Archive; Images. Metropolitan Museum Cleveland Museum of Art. Featured. All Images; This Just In; Flickr Commons; ... From Max Weber: Essays in sociology Bookreader Item Preview
At the beginning of this introduction I wrote that Science as a Vocation was Weber's failed attempt to moderate the politics of the "young poets of revolutionary convictions" in ... (1946[1919]) Science as a vocation. In: Gerth HH, Mills CW (eds) From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press, 129-156. Crossref.
Max Weber's lecture 'Science as a Vocation' is a classic of social thought, in which central questions are posed about the nature of social and political thought and action. The lecture has often taken to be a summation of Weber's thought. It can also be argued that, together with the responses of its admirers and critics, it provides a focus for discussion of the nature of modernity ...
Politics as a Vocation. ('Politik als Beruf,' Gesammelte Politische Schriften (München, 1921), pp. 396-450. Originally a speech at Munich University, 1918, published. in 1919 by Duncker & Humblot, Munich.) THIS lecture, which I give at your request, will necessarily disap-point you in a number of ways. You will naturally expect me to take ...
Max Weber (1864-1920) was one of the most prolific and influential sociologists of the twentieth century. This classic collection draws together his key papers. This edition contains a new preface by Professor Bryan S. Turner.
We thought that to re-address vocation in science/of science, the theme of Max Weber's famous 1917 lecture, in which he defended academic freedom and the separation of science and politics. In his lecture for students in München, Weber represented the ideal scientist as driven by an autonomous need for knowledge.
2019. Exactly 100 years ago, Max Weber outlined in his lecture "Science as a Vocation," what the material and above all the inner meaning of scientific action comprises. We would like to question some of Weber's basic concepts and further develop some of his basic ideas in order to see more clearly what we as professors and social scientists ...