Science as a Vocation: The Logic of Argumentation and Revisiting Weber’s Intellectual Project
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24234/wisdom.v32i2.1127Keywords:
Max Weber, science as vocation, argumentation theory, rationality, ethics of science, epistemic justification, modernityAbstract
The article examines Max Weber’s seminal lecture Science as a Vocation (1918), through the lens of modern argumentation theory. The authors argue that Weber’s text not only presents a sociological reflection on the role of science in the age of modernity but also implicitly demonstrates a model of rational argumentation. By analyzing Weber’s distinctions between scientific and non-scientific modes of reasoning, as well as his concept of the ethical neutrality of science, the article reconstructs the inner logic of Weber’s intellectual project as an epistemic argument: one that separates rational justification from moral persuasion. The study also reveals how Weber’s conceptualization of science as both vocation (Beruf) and profession anticipates the contemporary debates on the purpose, autonomy, and ethical limits of scientific knowledge.
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