SOURCE: "Sociology and the Distrust of Reason," in Scholarship and Partisanship: Essays on Max Weber, by Reinhard Bendix and Guenther Roth, University of California Press, 1970, pp. 84-105.

The following essay, originally read as the Presidential Address to the 65th Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association in 1970, examines Weber's essay "Science as a Vocation" and the late-twentieth century disillusionment with science.

Historical Perspectives and Sociological Inquiry as the theme of an American sociological convention would have been incongruous twenty years ago. It is not so today. We meet amidst upheaval directly affecting the academic community. The social sciences and sociology in particular are at the center of the storm. The freedom to do scholarly work has been questioned when it is not directed to problems considered "relevant" by the critics. In this setting we must demonstrate to those willing to listen that great issues of the day can...