Autonomy, asceticism, agonism – Max Weber’s scientific objectivity as idea, practice and politics

Abstract

The primary function of objectivity-as-value-freedom is to safeguard the formal vision of the good life: Autonomously choosing one’s own ultimate values, calling, fate. The standards of objectivity and good science that Weber proposes are infused with existential, moral and political concerns and depend partly on their context of origin. His vision of objective science depends on factors normally classified as subjective.

Howard Becker tells us that one way to generalise from a case study is to rephrase the findings on a higher level of abstraction. (Becker 1998: 125-8) In this case, I have found that non-scientific values become transformed into scientific values. Scientific values depend partly on cultural values, both in their origin and their validity. The outside determines not the full content, but the form of the inside. Do methodologies have politics? We have seen that concepts, questions and perspectives in a methodology are value-laden. Furthermore, in this case the inside also prescribes the form of the outside, the social order. Thus the inside also by its very design performs outside functions; Weber’s methodology is to an extent political. Inside and outside appear to stand in a dialectical relationship, giving form to each other. Although Weber’s objectivity-as-value-freedom is sophisticated and insightful, it does not fully capture this complexity and some of its tenets no longer appear plausible. It seems Weber did not settle these matters once and for all.