This book contains a collection of essays debating the "Science as a Vocation" lecture by Max Weber, whose work may be regarded as a starting point for investigation into the nature, meaning and purpose of the social sciences. The aim of this book is to direct attention back to this debate and to indicate its current relevance. It is hoped that this book will provide an illustration of the way in which historical and philosophical considerations concerning the development of the modern social sciences are intertwined. Some of the essays have been selected in terms of their considered importance in presenting a cross-section of the debate that was occasioned by Weber's lecture, while others discuss problems and themes in the light of more recent commentaries on political and social thought.
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.