Max Weber's 'Science as a Vocation'

<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>