Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge ‘The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211 USA 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia © Cambridge University Press 1992 First published 1992 Reprinted 1994, 1995 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data Cascardi, Anthony J. ‘The subject of modemity / Anthony J. Cascardi, ern, — (Literature, culture, theory) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN O 521 41287 o (hardcover). ~ ISBN © 521 42378 3 (paperback) 1, Subjectivity. 2. Philosophy, Modem. 3. Civilization, Modem. 4. Literature, Modem. 1. Title. un. Series. 3841.6057 1992 126-dezo g1-12689 or ISSN © 521 41287 0 hardback ISBN © 521 42398 3 paperback Transferred to digital printing 2000 urI De deecdectectoete doe reretoctoctocodo doce ceiocboetesbostoenebrele ioerelocde doe dodeereeed> The “disenchantment” of the world pebecbocncdoetedoctoctoetectoctoctocs doch docdoctoctoctocdotocdoatodocte foctocbocinctocinetocbectocdodioatocioeds Historical self-assertion The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization, and, above all, by the “disenchantment of the world.” Precisely the ultimate and most sublime values have retreated from public life. Max Weber, “Science as Vocation” “The disenchantment of the world” is a phrase that I take from Max Weber, who spoke of the eclipse of magical and animistic beliefs about nature as part of the more general process of “rationalization” which he saw as the defining feature of modernity in the West.! In the lecture entitled ‘Science as Vocation” (1917) and in the prefatory remarks to his studies on the sociology of religion written at the very end of his life (1920), Weber posed the following questions:* How can we account for the fact that there developed in the West a series of interrelated practices and beliefs predicated on the a priori accessibility of nature to rational calculation and control? Why was the process of secularization also accompanied by an increase of purposive-rational (ztveckrational) action in the West? What has been the impact on the moder system of values of a concept of perfection that was uprooted from its sacred context and became interpreted as 41 Weber may in turn have known the phrase “die entgéttertur Natur” from Schiller’s poem “Die Gétter Greichenlands.” 2 The date of “Science as Vocation” has been the subject of much confusion and debate. While it had long been considered that both this and “Politics as Vocation” were given in 1918 (and published in 1919), more recent research has shown “Science” to have been delivered in 1917. For a complete discussion of the relevant sources, see Wolfgang Schluchter, “The Question of the Dating of "Science as a Vocation’ and ‘Politics as a Vocation’,” in Schluchter and Guenther Roth, Max Weber's Vision of History: Ethics and Methods (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979), pp. 113-16, The essays are reprinted in H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, eds., From Max Weber (New York: Oxford University Press, 1940). 16