Quote#Science & Reason
After Nietzsche’s devastating criticism of those “last men” who…
Quote byMax Weber · 1864–1920
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: "Science as a Vocation" (1917).
English (original)
After Nietzsche’s devastating criticism of those “last men” who “invented happiness,” there is probably no need for me to remind you of the naïve optimism with which we once celebrated science, or the technology for the mastery of life based on it, as the path to happiness. Who believes this, apart from a few overgrown children occupying university chairs or editorial offices?
— Max Weber
More from Max Weber
The contrast between asceticism and mysticism is also tempered if the contemplative mystic does not draw the conclusion that he should flee from the world, but, like the inner-worldly asceticist, remain in the orders of the world …
In this regard too I consider myself a cripple, a stunted man whose fate it is to admit honestly that he must put up with this state of affairs (so as not to fall for some romantic swindle)... For you a theologian of liberal persuasion …
For the true mystic the principle continues to hold: the creature must be silent so that God may speak.
Mysticism intends a state of "possession," not action, and the individual is not a tool but a "vessel" of the divine.
The capacity to distinguish between empirical knowledge and value-judgments, and the fulfillment of the scientific duty to see the factual truth as well as the practical duty to stand up for our own ideals constitute the program to which …
The Truth is the Truth.