From Avocation to Vocation: An Ambivalence of Professional Science (Introduction to the Special Issue)

ABSTRACT

This article is an introduction to the current thematic issue dedicated to the seminal lecture by Max Weber ‘Science as a vocation’, published in 1919. Its centenary is worth celebrating because the work discovered new trends in the social nature of science in the very making of its professional institutional structure. In fact, this Weber text was one of the first to shape the agenda for the social studies of science. The proposed overview of the contributed articles shows how Weber’s problems receive critical elaboration in concrete cases dealing with the social and technical sciences, methodological and ethical normativity, and science popularization.

KEYWORDS:

• Max Weber
• ethos of science
• profession
• vocation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

The research was performed within the project supported by Russian Science Foundation No. 19-18-00494 «The Mission of the Scientist in the Modern World; Science as Profession and Vocation» in Russian Society for History and Philosophy of Science.

Notes on contributors

Ilya Kasavin

Ilya Kasavin ‒ DSc in Philosophy, Professor, Correspondent Fellow of Russian Academy of Sciences, department head at RAS Institute of Philosophy; professor and chair at Lobachevsky University. He is currently the President of Russian Society for History and Philosophy of Science.

Kasavin has published in the fields of epistemology, philosophy of science, philosophy of language and cultural studies, and his latest publications include: Interactive Zones: On the Prehistory of the Scientific Laboratory, Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2014, v. 84, issue 6; The Philosophy of Science: A Political Turn, Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 2015. V. 85. No. 6; Realism: A Challenge for Social Epistemologists. Social Epistemology, 2015, No. 1; The Formation of Social Technologies: Stages and Examples. Russian Studies in Philosophy. 2017. Т. 55. № 1; Gift versus Trade: On the Culture of Scientific Communication, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 2019, 49 (6): 453-472; Towards a Social Philosophy of Science: Russian Prospects, Social Epistemology, 2017, No. 1.