讲师丨但汉松 来源丨 The Chronicle Review 日期丨 2020.3.2 Mon.

Tiger Times 01

马克斯·韦伯：如何以学术为业？

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1917 年的历史语境对韦伯的演讲意味着什么？
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你知道德国式的现代大学和中世纪的欧洲大学有什么区别吗？
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韦伯如何评价现代研究型大学的使命？
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Bildung 是一种怎样的教育？
韦伯推崇的“价值自由”是什么意思？ 扫码听课
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大学老师在学生的道德教育和学术成长中应该扮演怎样的角色？
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你知道 "come down to" 是什么意思吗？

Max Weber Invented the Crisis of the

Humanities
听课笔记
讲解正文

More than 100 years old, his landmark essay is more relevant than ever.

In the summer of 1917, a group of university students in Munich invited

Max Weber to launch a lecture series on "intellectual work as a vocation"
with a talk about the scholar's work. He was, in a way, an odd choice. Fifty-
three at the time, Weber hadn't held an academic job in over a decade.
His career had begun promisingly, but in 1899 he suffered a nervous
breakdown and gave up his position as a professor of economics at the
University of Heidelberg.

Still, it was understandable why the students in Munich were drawn

to Weber. They belonged to the Free Student Alliance, an organization
devoted to championing the lofty ideals of the German research
university — the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, Bildung or moral
education, academic freedom, and the democratization of all these goods
—at a time when those ideals appeared to be imperiled by disciplinary
specialization, state intervention, the influence of industrial capitalism, and
the war. Writing over the years as a kind of insider-outsider, Weber had
distinguished himself as an extraordinarily erudite and forceful defender of
an ideal university.
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When, on November 7, 1917, he stepped to the podium to address an

audience comprised mostly of students, Germany was in the midst of a
severe food shortage, and though defeat was by no means a foregone
conclusion, a truce was the best that could be hoped for. In the
meantime, millions of young men had died. How, in this context, was one
to think of the vocation of the scholar?

Yet Weber, to his audience's dismay, began his lecture not by articulating
an ideal but rather by delving into the practical challenges and liabilities
of academic lives and careers. The university was riddled with structural
problems: terrible teaching, workplace discrimination, the exploitation of
the labor force, an arbitrary hiring process, and an ever more specialized,
businesslike, and consequently uninspiring understanding of the scholar's
vocation.

All of which his audience was no doubt well aware. Yet Weber didn't
offer any suggestions about how to reform working conditions, or much
hope that the university as an institution could be transformed. As to
specialization, he presented it as a basic feature of scholarly life. Weber
argues that to responsibly lead a life of the mind in the academy, a person
had to recognize that universities shouldn't provide more than a limited
moral instruction. Nor should they impart ready-made worldviews. The
purpose of universities is to advance scholarship and to educate students by
pursuing knowledge in an open-ended way.

Scholarship required certain ideals, values, and virtues. In fact, the values
that Weber identified as essential for scholarship turn out to resemble the
ones that today's advocates of moral education tend to foreground as a
counterpoise to research training: inclusiveness, intellectual integrity,
courage, and a principled commitment to intellectual and value pluralism,
among others. For Weber, research training should include imparting those
values, which are at once scholarly and moral.

Weber considered universities uniquely well-equipped to form students

into mature, independent, self-reflective subjects with "the capacity to think
clearly and 'know what one wants.'" Universities shouldn't shy away from
values; rather, they should induce students to reflect conscientiously on
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the values they presumed to be their own; they should teach students to
understand how their own moral claims and values will conflict with those
of others, and that acting in accord with their values will have specific
social consequences.

For this teaching to happen in a scholarly way, students and university

teachers alike need "value freedom," a concept oftentimes mistaken
for value neutrality. As Weber understood it, however, value freedom
functioned like an imperative to take responsibility for one's freedom and,
thus, one's own ultimate commitments and values. Neither specialized
scholarship nor the modern, disciplinary university could ground and
sustain one's highest ideals and loves. The "ideals" a student "should serve,"
"the gods he should bow before" are, to Weber, ultimately a matter that
students must figure out for themselves and should come down to where
their passion lies.
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词汇
vocation /vəʊˈkeɪʃn/ n.（认为特别适合自己的）工作，职业， 的是，名单上没有她的名字。
生活方式
○ a type of work or way of life that you believe is especially articulate /ɑːˈtɪkjəleɪt/ v. 明确表达；清楚说明
suitable for you
○ e.g. Nursing is not just a job — it's a vocation. 护理不仅
仅是一项工作，而且还是一种职业。
odd /ɒd/ adj. 奇怪的；怪异的；反常的
○ strange or unusual
○ e.g. They're very odd people. 他们那些人都很古怪。
promisingly /ˈprɒmɪsɪŋli/ adv.（通常只是开头）给人以希
望地 , 良好地
○ If something or someone starts promisingly, they begin
well but often fail in the end.
○ e.g. It all started so promisingly when Speed scored a tre-
mendous first goal. 比赛开始的时候形势大好，斯皮德以
一记精彩的进球先拔头筹。
champion /ˈtʃæmpiən/ v. 捍卫；声援
○ to fight for or speak in support of a group of people or a
belief
○ e.g. He has always championed the cause of gay rights. 他
一直在为争取同性恋者的权利而斗争。
lofty /ˈlɒfti/ adj. 崇高的；高尚的
○ deserving praise because of its high moral quality
○ e.g. lofty ideals of equality and social justice 平等和社会
正义的崇高理想
erudite /ˈerudaɪt/ adj. 博学的；有学问的
○ having or showing great knowledge that is gained from
academic study
○ e.g. He was never dull, always erudite and well informed.
他从来就不愚笨，而是一直博学多才、见多识广。
podium /ˈpəʊdiəm/ n. 讲台；讲坛；（乐队的）指挥台
○ a small platform that a person stands on when giving a
speech or conducting an orchestra, etc
○ e.g. Martin Luther King walked to a position behind the
podium. 马丁 · 路德 · 金走到讲台后面。
a foregone conclusion 预料中的必然结局
○ if you say that sth is a foregone conclusion, you mean that
it is a result that is certain to happen
○ e.g. The election result was a foregone conclusion. 选举结
果已成定局。
truce /truːs/ n. 停战协定；休战；停战期
○ an agreement between enemies or opponents to stop fight-
ing for an agreed period of time; the period of time that this
lasts
○ e.g. They agreed to call a truce. 他们同意宣布休战。
dismay /dɪsˈmeɪ/ n. 忧虑，失望，沮丧
○ the worry, disappointment, or unhappiness you feel when
something unpleasant happens
○ e.g. To her dismay, her name was not on the list. 使她难过
04
○ (formal) to express or explain your thoughts or feelings
clearly in words
○ e.g. She struggled to articulate her thoughts. 她竭力表明
她的想法。
delve into 探索；探究；查考
○ to try hard to find out more information about sth
○ e.g. She had started to delve into her father's distant past.
她开始探究她父亲久已逝去的岁月。
liability /ˌlaɪəˈbɪləti/ n.（法律上对某事物的）责任，义务
○ the state of being legally responsible for sth
○ e.g. The company cannot accept liability for any damage
caused by natural disasters. 该公司对自然灾害造成的任何
损失概不承担责任。
be riddled with 充满；充斥
○ to be full of sth, especially sth bad or unpleasant
○ e.g. Her typing was slow and riddled with mistakes. 她打
字很慢而且错误百出。
arbitrary /ˈɑːbɪtrəri/ adj. 任意的；武断的；随心所欲的
○ not seeming to be based on a reason, system or plan and
sometimes seeming unfair
○ e.g. The choice of players for the team seemed completely
arbitrary. 看来这个队的队员完全是随意选定的。
aware /əˈweə(r)/ adj. 知道；意识到；明白
○ knowing or realizing sth
○ e.g. Everybody should be made aware of the risks in-
volved. 应该让人人都知道所涉及的风险。
○ Were you aware that something was wrong? 你有没有意
识到已经出了问题？
impart /ɪmˈpɑːt/ v. 通知；透露；传授
○ to pass information, knowledge, etc to other people
○ e.g. She had information that she couldn't wait to impart.
她得到了消息，迫不及待地想告诉别人。
ready-made adj. 已有的，现成的
○ [only before noun] already provided for you so you do not
need to produce or think about it yourself
○ e.g. Old brands come with ready-made logos, slogans,
jingles and memories. 老品牌有现成的标志，口号，广告
短歌和回忆。
advance /ədˈvɑːns/ v. 促进；推动
○ to help sth to succeed
○ e.g. Studying for new qualifications is one way of advanc-
ing your career. 为提高学历而进修是促进事业发展的一个
办法。
open-ended adj. 无限制的；无确定目标的；无期限的
○ without any limits, aims or dates fixed in advance
○ e.g. an open-ended discussion 无限制的自由讨论
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○ to suppose that sth is true, although you do not have actual

foreground /ˈfɔːɡraʊnd/ v. 强调；突出 proof
○ to give particular importance to sth ○ e.g. From the way he talked, I presumed him to be your
○ e.g. The play foregrounds the relationship between father boss. 从他谈话的样子看，我想他是你们的老板。
and daughter. 这部戏剧凸显了父女之间的关系。
in accord with 与 ...... 一致（或相符合）
counterpoise /ˈkaʊntəˌpɔɪz/ n. 平衡 ○ in agreement with
○ a force, influence, etc that counterbalances another ○ e.g. This action would not be in accord with our policy. 这
○ e.g. There are counterpoises and compensations in life. 人 一行动不会符合我们的方针。
生里总是存在着平衡和补偿。
imperative /ɪmˈperətɪv/ n. 重要紧急的事；必要的事
pluralism /ˈplʊərəlɪzəm/ n. 多元主义 ○ (formal) a thing that is very important and needs immedi-
○ the belief that it is possible and good for different groups ate attention or action
of people to live together in peace in one society ○ e.g. The most important political imperative is to limit the
○ e.g. a nation characterized by cultural pluralism 以多元文 number of US casualties. 现在的头等政治大事就是要控制
化为特色的国家 美国人的伤亡人数。

induce /ɪnˈdjuːs/ v. 劝说；诱使 come down to 可归结为；可归纳为

○ (formal) to persuade or influence sb to do sth ○ [no passive] to be able to be explained by a single import-
○ e.g. Nothing would induce me to take the job. 没有什么能 ant point
诱使我接受这份工作。 ○ e.g. What it comes down to is either I get more money or I
leave. 归结起来就是：不给我加薪，我就辞职。
conscientious /ˌkɒnʃiˈenʃəs/ adj. 勤勉认真的；一丝不苟的
○ taking care to do things carefully and correctly
○ e.g. a conscientious student 勤勉认真的学生
○ conscientiously /ˌkɒnʃiˈenʃəsli/ adv. 负责尽职地；勤勉
认真地
○ e.g. She performed all her duties conscientiously. 她认真
负责地履行自己的所有职责。

presume /prɪˈzjuːm/ v. 假设；假定；料想，认为

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今日习题

1. 根据英文释义写出文中出现的对应单词

_________: to pass information, knowledge, etc to other people

_________: without any limits, aims or dates fixed in advance
_________: to persuade or influence sb to do sth

2. 一词多义

Which of the following underlined word is closest in meaning to the one in the sentence "The purpose of
universities is to advance scholarship and to educate students by pursuing knowledge in an open-ended
way."? ____

A. They had advanced 20 miles by nightfall.

B. We are willing to advance the money to you.
C. Our knowledge of the disease has advanced considerably over recent years.
D. Jameson agreed to the deal in an effort to advance his political career.

3. 翻译：根据给定中文回译英文

然而令观众沮丧的是，在演讲开始韦伯并没有高谈阔论一种理想，而是深入探讨了学术生活和学
术事业的实际挑战和责任。

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习题答案

delving into the practical challenges and liabilities of academic lives and careers.
3. Yet Weber, to his audience's dismay, began his lecture not by articulating an ideal but rather by
2. D
1. impart; open-ended; induce

编辑丨泽尔达