Antonovskiy A.Yu., Barash R.E. How do We Criticize Max Weber Today? Voprosy filosofii, 2019, Issue 8, pp. 10-14.

Abstract

The idea of a special role of a scientist in modern society was expressed by Max Weber in his speech “Science as a vocation”. The scientific community was interpreted by Weber as possessing an exceptional ability to produce “objective” (and not subjectively evaluative) statements about nature and society. In this sense, the representatives of science in their Pythagorean attitude, which was shared by Kepler, Galileo, Newton, and others, until a certain time understood themselves as people endowed with the highest mission to discover and realize the divine plan for the design of the universe. However, this idea of the separation of science and non-science and (resulting from this) the sovereign right of scientists to determine the directions of scientific and technological development, has entered into a fundamental contradiction with the current situation of the society of professions. This is an idea in which science is becoming more and more professionalized and the individual meanings and motivations of a scientist, his idea of his own special mission or vocation loses its meaning. This article is devoted to the update of the ideas of Max Weber on science in modern conditions.