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.
NICHOLAS ABERCROMBIE, University of Lancaster
ALAN WARDE, University of Manchester
ROSEMARY DEEM, University of Lancaster
SUE PENNA, University of Lancaster
KEITH SOOTHILL, University of Lancaster
ANDREW SAYER, University of Lancaster
JOHN URRY, University of Lancaster
SYLVIA WALBY, University of Leeds
His main research in recent years has been in advocating and developing a new paradigm for the social sciences, the new mobilities paradigm