The Vocation of a Scientist in a Disenchanted and Re-enchanted World

The article discusses the ethical principles of the functioning of science in society and the rational grounds for the ethics of science. These questions are raised in connection with the idea of voca-tion-as-a-gift expressed by Ilya Kasavin. Kasavin suggests that we should not seek a rational justification for the privileged position of science in society, but accept this position as a favour and grace. Kasavin’s concept is considered in the context of the Weberian distinction between profession and vocation. It is shown that the phenomenon of vocation-as-a-gift should be correlated with what Weber calls substantive rationality, contrasting it with formal rationality. As opposed to formal rationality, which is embodied in science with its universal quantitative method of knowledge, substantive rationality belongs to what is traditionally called common sense, i.e., the ability to perceive the qualitative uniqueness of things and events in the world and build behavior based on qualitative “gestalts”. Substantive rationality is closely related to the charismatic type of authority, which can be distributed among social aggregates and social institutions to the extent to which they represent the collective realization of subjective meanings. In a disenchanted world dominated by formal-rational relationships, the charismatic type of authority is pushed to the periphery of social life. Science is determined through the coefficient of its economic and technological efficiency, which causes the gradual transformation of its social role: from a vocation it turns into a profession. Based on this Weberian scheme, we should recognize that Kasavin’s appeal to the romantic figure of a charismatic scientist looks like an illegitimate restoration of an archaic type of social action; and the technoscientific world of formal rationality has no request for it, or this request is strongly marginalized. However, Kasavin’s concept can be better understood in the context of re-enchantment of the world. This new phenomenon indicates that science and technology today provide us with the resources to overthrow such idols of modernity as objectivism, positivism, scientism, etc., i.e., to overcome formal rationality. Under these conditions, the charismatic type of authority acquires a new legitimacy.

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