Max Weber argues that politics and science can be vocations. For politics, Weber sees it pessimistically as involving power, violence and domination to control the population. Science too can involve mundane, low pursuits but may also be a high calling to discover profound truths through inspired, soulful work. Weber advocates a fusion of high-minded science with principled politics to guide society towards authentic spiritual directions pursuing external and internal beauty.

1. Max Weber,
1864-1920
Politics as a Vocation
Science as a Vocation
Dr Craig Hammond
UCBC Social Science

2. • And the notion of ‘Vocation’

3. Politics … as a Vocation (?)
• Weber’s understanding and approach to
‘politics’
– “We wish to understand by politics only the
leadership, or the influencing of the leadership …
of a state … [T]he state is a relation of men
dominating men, a relation supported by means
of … violence. If the state is to exist, the
dominated must obey the authority claimed by
the powers that be.” (Weber, 1991, p, 77-78).

4. Politics … as a Vocation (?)
• Weber therefore has a very pessimistic view of
politics
• This is apparent through his use of such terms
as ‘power’, ‘violence’ and ‘domination’.
– “… politics operates with very special means,
namely, power backed up by violence.” (ibid, p,
119).

6. Politics … as a Vocation (?)
• Weber argues that politics is not concerned
with the pursuit of high ideals and truth
– On the contrary – it is concerned with
• The manipulation and play of words: carried
out by power-mongers in the continued
search for increasing power
• The close alignment of ‘Law’ to politics is no
mistake …

7. Politics … as a Vocation (?)
• Politics & Law allows for a ‘violence’ of
language
• This takes hold of a populace, when powerful
people manipulate the means of control
• The universal remit of Politics (as it has
developed) is concerned with:
– mundane and functional organisation (of physical
and economic life in society)

8. Politics … as a Vocation (?)
• Political society requires regulation, discipline
and organisation in order to function.
• Weber asserts that this is the only way that
politics can be & offers no idealistic or utopian
(political) solutions
• ‘Politically’ motivated revolutions only lead to
different forms of political control

9. Politics … as a Vocation (?)
• As he states:
– “… the soviets have had to accept again absolutely all the
things that Bolshevism had been fighting as bourgeois
class institutions. They have had to do this in order to keep
the state and the economy going at all.” (Weber: 100)
– “Do we not see that the Bolshevik and the Spartacist
ideologists bring about exactly the same results as any
militaristic dictator … does the rule of the workers and
soldiers councils differ from the rule of any power-holder
of the old regime?” (Weber: 119)

10. Politics … as a Vocation (?)
• What is a vocation?
• How can we define, understand the notion of
vocation?
– What is the
Relationship of
These people to
Politics:

11. Politics … as a Vocation (?)
• Weber clarifies that the role of the politician is to
uphold taxation: confiscatory taxation, outright
confiscation, ultimately - compulsion and regulation for
all.
– “Not summer’s bloom lies ahead of us, but rather a polar
night of icy darkness and hardness … Where there is
nothing, not only the Kaiser but also the proletarian has
lost his rights … When this night shall have slowly receded
… what will have become of all of you by then?”
• To what extent do you agree or disagree with Weber’s
arguments regarding the nature of politics?

12. “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the
rational mind is a faithful servant”. We have
created a society that honors the servant and
has forgotten the gift

13. Science … as a Vocation (?)
• Weber’s lecture on ‘science’ takes on a
different guise to that of politics:
• He argues that science should be of a ‘higher’
calling to political vocation.
• Whilst Politics is concerned with the
collective/mundanity
• Science has the potential to be a ‘deep’ and
personal calling.

14. Science … as a Vocation (?)
• He establishes a distinction between mediocre
‘low’ science
– Whose area of concern is similar to that of
Politics; and
• A ‘high’ science, which is inspired, soulful and
‘artistic’
– With the potential for the highest pursuit of ‘truth
and beauty’

15. Science … as a Vocation (?)
• Weber leaves us with the following scenario; either:
• The abandonment of ‘truth’ and a life of soulless mundanity
(political); or
• A return to one of the established paths to spiritual ‘freedom’,
where:
– “The great virtuosi of acosmic love of humanity and goodness,
whether stemming from Nazereth or Assisi or from Indian royal
castles, have not operated with the political means of violence. Their
kingdom was ‘not of this world’ and yet they worked and still work in
this world … He who seeks the salvation of the soul, of his own and
others, should not seek it along the avenue of politics, for the quite
different tasks of politics can only be solved by violence.” (Weber.
1991; 126)

16. Science … as a Vocation (?)
• “… there is a widespread notion that science has become a
problem in calculation, fabricated in laboratories or statistical
filing systems just as ‘in a factory,’ a calculation involving only
the cool intellect and not one’s ‘heart and soul’ … Science is
meaningless because it gives no answer to our question, the
only question important to us: ‘What shall we do and how
shall we live?’ … Natural science gives us an answer to the
question of what we must do if we wish to master life
technically. It leaves quite aside … whether we should and do
wish to master life technically and whether it ultimately
makes sense to do so.” (Weber: 135-144)

17. Science … as a Vocation (?)
• Weber proposes a kind of spiritual-heroic science,
executed, or striven for by a scientific-philosopher hero
• The pursuit of ideals – purely for the sake and beauty
of doing so
• To articulate this Weber refers to Plato’s cave
(Republic)
• In the cave, men are ‘chained’ and positioned in such a
way that they can only face the rear wall of a cave
• They are only able to view shadows on the wall created
by a source of light

18. Science … as a Vocation (?)

19. Science … as a Vocation (?)
• A science inspired by beauty, hope and love in search
of ‘truth
• Weberian-Platonic science appears to be something
of another realm, something deeper and older; more
profound, universal yet illusive
• Weber appears to be call for a ‘fusion’ of Politics as a
true vocation along with principles of ‘high’ Science.
• Brought together – they would inspire a new
direction, an authentic and spiritually-connected
direction to pursue external and internal beauty.

21. • Thoughts … Comments … Connections