“Processes of rationalization and disenchantment engender a shift from a social order founded upon value-rational beliefs and governed through charismatic and traditional forms of authority, to an order ruled by the force of instrumental reason and dominated by new forms of institutional bureaucracy. This movement results in the depersonalization of the social world: instrumental calculation steadily suppresses the passionate pursuit of ultimate values, and bureaucracy reduces the scope for individual initiative and personal fulfillment... instrumental reason... is not only tied to the devaluation or disenchantment of the highest and most sublime values and ideals, but places important limits on the scope for individual autonomy and freedom in the modern world.” ReligionFreedomIndividualityBureaucracy Book:Max Weber and Postmodern Theory: Rationalisation Versus Re-enchantment Source: Max Weber and Postmodern Theory: Rationalisation Versus Re-enchantment
“... As Weber suggests, once science is employed to justify and enact ideal values, especially through the actions of an elite few (the academy), particular values, in this case the idea of what is 'natural', are cast into an objectively valid and legitimate form, and thus appear as being beyond critique. And at this point Weber rightly warns that science, contrary to Durkheim's belief, is not both cognitive and moral in nature, for it rests upon a designation of authority, and may, especially if used beyond its own limits, give rise to new means of domination.” ScienceReligionPoliticsEthicsMorals Book:Max Weber and Postmodern Theory: Rationalisation Versus Re-enchantment Source: Max Weber and Postmodern Theory: Rationalisation Versus Re-enchantment