Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
as to whether Freud's faith is not his ultimate defense mechanism or a
sign of his maturity, a maturity running ahead of and presaging where
the rest of humankind is heading.
Science as a Vocation: Truth versus Meaning
In 1917, perhaps on the very day of the Bolshevik seizure of power in
Russia, Weber delivered a lecture titled “Science as a Vocation”
(“
Wissenschaft als Beruf
”) to a crowded hall of German university stu-
dents in Munich.
18
It stands as one of the great—unsurpassed in my
view—twentieth-century statements of the ethics and ethos of science
and scientists. It may well be considered one of the first twentieth-century
statements, especially if one agrees with my old humanist German pro-
fessors at the University of Chicago who felt that Western civilization
had come to an end by 1917. The lecture fits within the general frame-
work that Weber had elsewhere set for himself of characterizing the “life
orders” (
Lebensführung
) under modern capitalism. Although Weber
does not phrase it this way, the central theme of the lecture might well
be: What is maturity, within modernity, for those who dedicate their life
to seeking knowledge and understanding? In the triad of science, enlight-
enment, and history, Weber privileges history and science. He presents a
challenging diagnosis of the historical moment and the ethical demands
it poses for those who desire to remain loyal to science. Loyal, that is,
without illusions. Weber chillingly refers to the Enlightenment as “the
laughing heir” of capitalism—an heir that by 1917, had long lost its
“rosy blush.”
19
For Weber, we lived enmeshed in processes of modernity
rather than enlightenment.
Weber divided his lecture, in classical didactic fashion, into three parts:
(1) the material conditions of science, (2) the inner ethic of science,
and (3) the cultural—or value—significance of science in modernity.
Although this set of distinctions is totally out of fashion today, I believe
it remains a powerful mode of orientation for those who study science
and practice Wissenschaft.
Material Conditions
Weber cast his discussion of the material conditions of science as a com-
parison between the work conditions and career trajectory of graduate
