Weber’s Science as a Vocation

Institutions or sites of science are very significant for the development of the knowledge and science. Instutionalization means that dividing into the smaller parts. Thus, instutionalization accelerate the growth of the knowledge. Instutionalization is similar with professionalization. Both of them help to the science to develop. However, instutionalvzation for the science comes up at very near history.

There are two types of universities from history to now. These are the early modern universities and the modern universities. At the early modern universities, the education is different than the modern universities. At the early modern univerities, natural sciences as physics, chemistry, geology, astronomy, ecology are studied. At modern universities, natural sciences ara studied as well as the early modern universitied. However, there are some differences. One of the difference is instutinalization. At the early modern universities, the science studied as a whole part. For example, they studied entire biology. At the modern universities, biology is divided into the subthemas as genetics, molecular biology, plant physiology and do on. To understand the subthemas of the biology, knowing whole biology is requiered. However, dividing the big topic into the smaller parts makes the studies more effective. After these divisions, science has been improved a lot. The other difference is for the early modern universities the science was not accepted as a “vocation”. At the modern universities, becoming profesional in science in the universities can be accepted as a job. It can be said that, science become popular in market economy. In addition to these, in the medieval universities, they studied history, mathematic, biology and they started to study grammer, logic and dialectic. And also, at these universities, they effort to final a way of contol of scepticism and they tried to replace it with the certaintity.

According to Weber, “the fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and above all by the disenchanment of the world.” [1] He says that, after disenchanment of the world that means having logical explanation for the problems, not having the mystic explanations. That idea comes up at the modern universities after change the way of thinking about the science. These changes about science lead the universities to change. Thus, there are differences between the universities. In addition to these, Weber says that, “Science today is a vocation that organized in special disciplines.” [2] That quote explains that how the science is seen in the modern universities at the present time. From the history, mant phlosophers thought that large particles are invisible so they tried to divide them into small particles. That idea lead them to divide the science into the subdisiplines. In the universities, scientists become a teacher and they give lectures and for that they are paid. All of these changes make to accept the science as a vocation.

To sum up, the universities and their systems and their courts are changes as everything. After rönesans the way of thinking has been changed. The way of thinking has changed the subjects that are studied in fact the subjects are not changed entirely, they just divided into groups. Also, at the present time universities are changing. Weber compares the universities in Germany and the USA. From his comparision, it can be said that in Germany, the academic career starts with being a private lecturer and they are not paid. On the other hand, in the USA, the academic career starts as being “assistan” who is paid. Thus, they do a lot of works. Overburdened by a lot of works as being assistant and being paid from the university indicates that science becomes as a job. In German system, the graduate student can be an academician if they can have the opportunities about self funding. When we look that system, it can not be said that science is accapted as a job. However, German Universities has been accepted the system of America afterwards. Nowadays, becoming a scientist is accepted as a job. It can be said that, americanization have effects on the entire areas as life, science and so on.

RESOURCES

[1] Weber M. ,Science as a Vocation, Retrieved from,

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moriyuki/abukuma/weber/lecture/science_frame.html

[2] Weber M. ,Science as a Vocation, Retrieved from,

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moriyuki/abukuma/weber/lecture/science_frame.html

Peter Dear, Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge and its Ambitions, 1500-1700. 2nd ed. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave, 2008.

the natural sciences and the social sciences

There is not any hard and fast division between the natural sciences and the social sciences. Natural sciences based on the sciences of the nature as physics, biology, chemistry, astronomy and so on. Natural sciences are the main base of the scientific revolution. On the other hand, social sciences are related with the society. Social sciences includes law, economics, sociology, geography and so on. For both of them some methods are used. The scientific method can be used for both of them. Due to the most important part of the method is having a definite problem. After defining the problem, data collection is important. For both of them, these steps are used. And than, some observations and experiments can be done. For the natural sciences some experiments can be done many times. However, for social sciences sometimes it can not be possible. On the other hand, observation is useful process for both of them.

Darwin has defined a term as “natural selection” that is survival of the fittest. That means the powerful living creature developed in the nature for surviving. According to Darwin, the social animals adopt the structure that should be benefit for the community. The structure of one species modifies as giving advantage to another species and that should be good for others. Darwin has been defined that theory by looking at the animal and plants. He observed them and their behaviours in the their natural habitat. After some years has been passed, that theory was started to use for the human community. Behaviours of the humans can help to regulate the economy. It can play a role in curing the social negativities as poverty, illiteracy and so on. After these kind of studies occur which is about scientific study that is based on social behaviour. That can explain the behaviours of the people in the context of evolution. This can be explained clearly with the theory of Charles Darwin and Adam Smith. Charles Darwin says that the most powerful living creature can be survive in the environment and develop ıtself which is called as “natural selection.” On the other hand, Adam Smith defined a term that is about economy, “invisible hand”. Invisible hand means that self regulation of the market in the society. There are forces that play a role in regulating the market place which are competition, self interest and supply-demand. When we look that definition, we can remember the theory of Darwin. When there is competition between the species in the nature, species want to be powerful. That can be seen same for the economy. When there is competition between markets in the economics, all of them want to be the most powerful. For the nature and for the economy, competition between the species makes one of them most powerful. The most powerful one can survive itself.

To sum up, the natural sciences and the social sciences affect each other a lot. They can not be thought as distinct due to strict correlation of them. When natural sciences and social sciences are wanted to be compared, the critics can be the methods, theories and ideas. By looking them, natural sciences and social sciences can be thought as so similar. The most well known example for that can be the evolution theory. Natural selection is the theory of nature that was explained by Darwin. On the other hand, Adam Smith who is the economist explained the invisible hand. The reasons of natural selection and invisible hand are so similar. Thus, it can be said that there is a theory that have main bases and these bases can be converted into nature life and social life.