Max Weber, 1864-1920

Politics as a VocationScience as a Vocation

Dr Craig HammondUCBC Social Science

• And the notion of ‘Vocation’

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).

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).

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 …

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)

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

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)

Politics … as a Vocation (?)

• What is a vocation?• How can we define, understand the notion of

vocation?

– What is theRelationship ofThese people toPolitics:

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?

“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

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.

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’

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)

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)

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

Science … as a Vocation (?)

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.

• Thoughts … Comments … Connections