Max Weber's 'Science as a Vocation' (RLE Social Theory)

<p>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 political consequences, and of the philosophical and political implications of the social or human sciences. This volume provides a full, clear, revised translation of the lecture, together with translations from the German of key contributions to the lively debate that followed its publication. 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 nature and place of sociology.</p> <p>1. Science as a Vocation <i>Max Weber</i> 2. The Vocation of Science <i>Erich von Kahler</i> 3. For Science: Against the Intellectuals Among its Despisers <i>Arthur Salz</i> 4. The Revolution in Science <i>Ernst Troeltsch</i> 5. Max Weber on Science as a Vocation <i>Ernst Robert Curtius</i> 6. Max Weber’s View of Science <i>Heinrich Rickert</i> 7. Sociology and the Study and Formulation of Weltanschauung <i>Max Scheler</i> 8. Max Weber’s Exclusion of Philosophy <i>Max Scheler </i> 9. Max Weber’s Significance for Intellectual History <i>Siegfried Landshut</i> 10. The Crisis of Science in Germany in 1919 <i>Erich Wittenberg</i> 11. Max Weber’s Ethical Criticism and the Problem of Metaphysics <i>Erik Wolf</i> 12. Max Weber’s Position on Science <i>Karl Lowith</i> 13. Max Weber on Science, Disenchantment and the Search for Meaning <i>Peter Lassman and Irving Velody</i></p>