The Vocation Lectures
By Max Weber
While not a book in its original format, the bounded text is as influential in the field of social sciences as it was when first delivered as lectures in Munich in the late 1910’s. The lectures consists of two parts: “Science as a Vocation” and “Politics as a Vocation”.
In these lectures, Weber explores and discusses the benefits and motivations for becoming a career academic, with comments on how the university systems of the German-speaking world affect the quality of education. He provides the ill- and positive incentives of an educational system that is still widely revered today.
He notes that the quality of an academic’s scholastic publications has nothing to do with the effectiveness of his teaching. He stresses the importance of imparting the critical thinking skills onto students to encourage them to make independent decisions about issues instead of imparting the teacher’s bias onto them.
What I found most valuable is his promotion of the full examination of competing values before casting a particular judgement. Students should be taught to realize that there are truths in the world that may be incompatible with their belief systems because there are competing values in the real world. They can come to the conclusion that one particular view fits their beliefs, but does not mean that all other views are wrong even if they are incompatible with theirs.
Between his discussions of professorships and preaching independent thought, Weber sprinkles the odd universal principle of work ethic here and there to keep the lectures grounded. Though it’s not a long piece of work, it still takes time to digest all the points of discussion. I’d strongly suggest anyone who wants to read this text to sit down in a comfortable chair with a cup of warm tea in their hand while doing so.
