Recently I was reading Max Weber’s thoughts on “Science as a Vocation” given in a lecture on November 7th, 1917. By science Weber means knowledge creation in the broader sense so pretty much all academics should be included as scientists. It can also tell us about the persistence of academic customs.
The Persistence of Academic Customs
There are lots of ideas in Weber’s lecture. The most interesting observation to me was the persistence of behaviors over time in academia. Clearly from looking at this book alone we can’t conclude whether behaviors persisted because they were the best ideas. They may have persisted through some sort of status quo bias/historical dependence. By the latter term I mean the persistence of a behavior because “that is what we do” rather than because it is the best approach. Despite this major caveat, the fact of persistence is interesting.
For example, Weber discusses the fact that he won’t hire his own doctoral students. This is an interesting problem in academia. Imagine that you hire one of your own students. The fact you are not hiring another could suggest a problem with the student who is not being hired. It becomes Akerlof’s famous lemons problem. The fact that you are “selling” your student means no one should want to “buy” the student. That said, if you never hire your students some are potentially undervalued. You know how good the students are but the market might not appreciate this. It is very hard to measure academic contribution. This suggests many students may not be appreciated as they deserve.
Blinkers Aid Success?
Weber notes how blinkered one has to be to achieve success in “science”. I worry a bit about this. I fear people build towers of ideas that if they removed their blinkers they would see the obvious structural flaws. That said, total specialism remains the prevailing wisdom and certainly has some logic. One has to be willing to delve into knowledge more deeply than the average person would think sensible.
Finally, Weber seems most modern when he talks about the need to appeal to students. He says that to be a “bad teacher… amounts in most cases to an academic death warrant” (Weber, 2004, page 6). (I’m not sure that is true). Still, as he did a century ago many professors like to complain about being dependent on student whims. Weber sounds like a classic professor when he says: “After extensive experience and sober reflection on the subject, I have developed a profound distrust of lecture courses that attract large numbers…” (Weber, 2004, page 6). Next time my student numbers aren’t high enough I’ll content myself that Weber would have approved.
Lack Of Change
Weber’s lecture seems very modern despite speaking 100 years ago. Even though theories and methods have changed, for good or bad, academic behavior doesn’t seem to change too much.
For more on academia see here, here, and here.
Read: Max Weber (2004, written in 1917), The Vocation Lectures: “Science as a Vocation”, Translation by Rodney Livingstone, Hackett Publishing Ltd.