(Dis)enchanting Disenchantment: Vocations of Science/Scholarship from Early Modern to Contemporary History

'Who - aside from certain big children who are indeed found in the natural sciences - still believes that the findings of astronomy, biology, physics, or chemistry could teach us anything about the meaning of the world?' - Max Weber

A little more than a century after its first publication (1919), Weber’s famous lecture "Wissenschaft als Beruf" is still highly relevant. Weber questioned the philosophical and political implications of the social sciences and the humanities. Klaas van Berkel's work as a historian continues and contributes to this debate. During his tenure as Professor of History of over thirty years at the University of Groningen, Van Berkel has published extensively and internationally on individual scholars and their role in science and society, and on the relationship between science and institutions of social or cultural authority, especially in the Netherlands. His numerous publications display a fascination with the tension between vocation and science; as an inner disposition of scholars and as embodied in its forms, practises and institutions.

This symposium honours him and his work. It centres on transformations in the meaning and role of science and scientists, and the public outreach of science after the medieval period.

Keynote lecture: Wednesday, March 4, 16:00, Van Swinderen Huys

Steven Shapin, Harvard University - "The Vocation of Science: Its Past and Its Present Problems"

Farewell lecture: Thursday, March 5, 16:00, Aula of the Academy Building

Klaas van Berkel - "Illusies"

For more information, see the official announcement and the programme.