Den akademiska frihetens gränser : Max Weber, Humboldtmodellen och den värdefria vetenskapen

Sammanfattning: The aim of this dissertation is to contribute to an understanding of why Weber advocated a value-free science. In en essay from 1917, Weber writes that the question of whether or not one ought to make value judgments in the lecture hall is basically a question of practical university policy. Weber's statement warrants a study of previously relatively unexamined source material. Between 1908 and 1911 Weber wrote a number of articles dealing with university policy. Using these texts as a basis for my research, I discern four reasons why he calls for a value-free science. The first reason is that he wants to provide students with protection against political indoctrination. The second reason is that he wants to counteract the ideological fragmentation that threatens to arise within universities if teachers with fundamentally irreconcilable views assume the right to preach politics from the lectern. The third reason is that he wants to avoid giving the government an excuse to intervene in academic appointments in order to make sure that the faculties do not grant chairs to individuals who question the current form of government. The fourth reason, paradoxically, is that he wants to lay the foundation for an alternative political education of students. Such a political education would not force upon students certain previously determined norms and rules of action, but instead would encourage them to examine themselves and their ethical motives, thus creating autonomous individuals. Previous resarch has argued that Weber defended academic freedom at a time when powerful forces were at work to restrict it. This conclusion is partially anachronic. The right to express political opinions in the lecture hall was as a rule seen as part of academic freedom at the turn of the twentieth century. The problems Weber intends to solve with the doctrine of value-free science, including the discrimination of dissidents, is thus a direct and indirect result of academic freedom.