Psychedelic science as cosmic play, psychedelic humanities as perennial polemics? Or why we are still fighting over Max Weber’s Science as a Vocation
Journal of Classical Sociology May 23, 2019 N. Langlitz 10 citations
Max Weber's claim that scientific work becomes obsolete within 10–15 years is challenged by the enduring relevance of his lecture "Science as a Vocation" a century later. Drawing on anthropological fieldwork on the revival of psychedelic science since the 1990s, the author argues that Weber's ideal type of vocational science offers a comparative tool for understanding contemporary scientists, such as Swiss neuroscientist Franz X. Vollenweider, who blends psychedelic experiences with Hindu philosophy to view science as play. Weber also contributed to the historical sociology of science by describing scientific life in Germany and the U.S. and by arguing for the separation of facts and values.