Scientific Vocation as an Existential Choice

The article attempts to understand scientific vocation as an existential choice in connection with Ilya Kasavin’s work on the calling of the scientist. The article recognizes vocation as a combination of random preconditions of personal formation and the influence of value and cultural foundations orienting a person to the courageous adherence to “ultimate senses”. Scientific vocation appears as a scientist’s “unravelling” of the history of his/her life in the horizon of existential experience determining the main lines of self-development. The calling of the scientist is an element of cultural memory connecting modernity with the spiritual heritage of the past. “Disenchanted” ideals and values continue playing a key role in the formation of the scientific ethos on a secular basis. It is shown that rationalization of scientific vocation helps construing the motivation of scientific growth. Relevant illustrations refer to Gabriel Marcel’s autobiographical essay and Rollo May’s memoirs about Paul Tillich’s spiritual formation.

Keywords

Authors

References