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Originally published separately, Weber's Science as a Vocation and Politics as a Vocation stand as the classic formulations of his positions on two related subjects that go to the heart of his thought: the nature and status of science and its claims to authority; and the nature and status of political claims and the ultimate justification for such claims. Together in this volume, these newly translated lectures offer an ideal point of entry into Weber's central project: understanding how, as Weber put it, "in the West alone there have appeared cultural manifestations [that seem to] go in the direction of universal significance and validity.

German sociologist Max Weber’s 1919 lecture Politics as a Vocation is widely regarded as a masterpiece of political theory and sociology. Its central strength lies in Weber’s deployment of masterful interpretative skills to power his discussion of modern politics. Interpretation involves understanding both the meaning of evidence and the meaning of terms – questioning definitions, clarifying terms and processes, and supplying good, clear definitions of the author’s own. As a sociologist accustomed to working with historical evidence, Weber based his own work on precisely these skills, solidly backed up by analytical acuity. Politics as a Vocation, written in a Germany shocked by its crippling defeat in World War I, saw Weber turn his eye to an examination of how the modern nation state emerged, and the different ways in which it can be run – interpreting and defining the different types of rule that are possible. It is testament to Weber’s interpretative skills that Politics is famous above all in sociological circles for its clear definition of a state as an institution that claims “the monopoly of legitimate physical violence” in a given territory.

A new translation of two celebrated lectures on politics, academia, and the disenchantment of the world. The German sociologist Max Weber is one of the most venturesome, stimulating, and influential theorists of the modern condition. Among his most significant works are the so-called vocation lectures, published shortly after the end of World War I and delivered at the invitation of a group of student activists. The question the students asked Weber to address was simple and haunting: In a modern world characterized by the division of labor, economic expansion, and unrelenting change, was it still possible to consider an academic or political career as a genuine calling? In response Weber offered his famous diagnosis of “the disenchantment of the world,” along with a challenging account of the place of morality in the classroom and in research. In his second lecture he introduced the notion of political charisma, assigning it a central role in the modern state, even as he recognized that politics is more than anything “a slow and difficult drilling of holes into hard boards.” Damion Searls’s new translation brings out the power and nuance of these celebrated lectures. Paul Reitter and Chad Wellmon’s introduction describes their historical and biographical background, reception, and influence. Weber’s effort to rethink the idea of a public calling at the start of the tumultuous twentieth century is revealed to be as timely and stirring as ever.

Annotation This is the first edition in any language of all of Max Weber's writings on academic and political vocations. The translation is new and liberally annotated, including a look at Weber's personality and what it was that made him such a phenomenon. Max Weber made many significant interpretations of both academic and political vocations in his two lectures on Science as a Vocation (Wissenschaft als Beruf, 1917) and Politics as a Vocation (Politik als Beruf) 1919), as well as in a series of newspaper articles including those written between 1908 and 1920. Since these writings are of more than historical interest, there was a need to bring them all together in a single volume. Newly translated and annotated, this collection comprises both lectures plus 32 articles which Weber wrote on academia. Most of these have not been translated before. In the Introduction, Prof. John Dreijmanis relates the academic and political vocations to each other conceptually, showing that there is considerable overlap and some convergence: the need for passion, an inward calling, as well as career insecurity both vocations. Dreijmanis then examines the person of Weber and provides a new view of him, in part through the lens of Carl C. Jung's theory of psychological types as further developed by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). As an extravert with a powerful thinking function and intellect, he was driven to take an interest in events outside himself and to speak his mind. Coming after a long line of introverted German philosophers, he was a phenomenon. The new translations, by Gordon C. Wells, are more faithful to Weber's style of expression, and they correct an accumulation of errors of previous translations in the oft-translated essays on Politics and Science. Contains Glossary, Bibliography, Names Index, Subject Index.

Weber's Rationalism and Modern Society rediscovers Max Weber for the twenty-first century. Tony and Dagmar Waters' translation of Weber's works highlights his contributions to the social sciences and politics, credited with highlighting concepts such as "iron cage," "bureaucracy," "bureaucratization," "rationalization," "charisma," and the role of the "work ethic" in ordering modern labor markets. Outlining the relationship between community (Gemeinschaft), and market society (Gesellschaft), the issues of social stratification, power, politics, and modernity resonate just as loudly today as they did for Weber during the early twentieth century.

This 2004 book argues that Christian faith belongs in politics because both pursue rational forms of thought.