The Vocation of Reason : : Studies in Critical Theory and Social Science in the Age of Max Weber / / Hall Thomas Wilson.

• Superior document: International Studies in Sociology and Social Anthropology ; 87
• VerfasserIn: Wilson, Hall Thomas,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden; , Boston : : BRILL,, 2004.
• Year of Publication: 2004
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: International Studies in Sociology and Social Anthropology ; 87.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (424 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

This book addresses, and at the same time reflects, the impact of Max Weber on both the social sciences and on critical theory's critique of the social sciences. Weber's conception of 'vocation' is a guiding thread unifying concerns about the nature, scope and limits of theoretical thinking among social scientists, whether supportive or critical of Weber. Not surprisingly, the source of many of these concerns, whether intended or unintended, biographical or situational, is the ambiguous legacy of Weber himself. Wilson's interrogation of Weber's thought in articles and essays over the past 30 years, supplemented by Kemple's insights, makes a strong case for the claim that we do indeed live in 'the age of Weber'.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements -- List of Tables and Figures -- Editor's Foreword - The age of Weber, by THomas M. Kemple -- Author's Introduction - The Ambivalence of Reason: Max Weber's Analysis of Western Modernity -- PART ONE. THE LIMITS OF 'RATIONALITY': FROM TRADITIONAL TO CRITICAL SOCIAL THEORY -- Editor's note on Part I -- I. Reading Max Weber: Critical Theory and the Limits of Sociology -- II. Critical Theory in America, 1938-1978: A Case of Intellectual Innovation and its Reception -- III. Critical Theory and Social Science: Episodes in a Changing Problematic from Adorno to Habermas -- IV. Functional Rationality and 'Sense of Function': Critical Comments on an Ideological Distortion -- V. Use Value and Substantive Rationality: Marx and Weber on Dichotomization in Modern Social Theory -- PART TWO. RECONSTRUCTING SOCIAL SCIENCE: FROM SOCIAL THEORIZING TO REFLEXIVE PRAXIS -- Editor's note on Part II -- VI. Technocracy as Late Capitalist Ideology: Between Spectre and Myth -- VII. Communication, Deprivation and Mobilization: Notes on the Achievement of Communicative Action and Related Difficulties -- VIII. Science, Technology, and Innovation: Reflections on Capital and Common Sense -- IX. Essential Process of Modernity: A Critical Analysis of Social Science Research Practices and an Alternative -- X. Time, Space and Value: Recovering the Public Sphere -- Index.