Max Weber’s “Science as a Vocation”: Context, Genesis, Structure

Abstract

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. Just as his essays on the Protestant Ethic turned on the central role of life conduct, so here Weber examines science in terms of the imperatives that the modern sciences impose upon its bearers.

Keywords

• american higher education
• german higher education
• science and knowledge
• science and values
• science and religion