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Politics as a Vocation is an essay written by Maximilian Weber, a German economist and sociologist. The original edition was published in German, but various translations to English exist.In this essay Weber states the definition of the state that has become so pivotal to Western social thought: that the state is that entity which possesses a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force, which it may nonetheless elect to delegate as it sees fit. Politics is to be understood as any activity in which the state might engage itself in order to influence the relative distribution of force. Politics thus comes to obtain to power-based concepts, to be understood as deriving of power. A politician must also not be a man of the "true Christian ethic" (understood by Weber as being the "Ethic of the Sermon of the Mount" - that is to say, the heeding of the injunction to turn the other cheek). An adherent of such an ethic ought be understood to be a saintIn general, the term saint is used to refer to someone thought to be especially virtuous and holy. This person may or may not be canonized, recognized or venerated by a religion. The word "saint" comes from the Latin word sanctus which means "holy. Variou (for it is only a saint, according to Weber, that should find such an ethic a rewarding one). The political realm is no realm for saints. A politician ought marry the ethic of ultimate end s and the ethic of responsibilityIn moral philosophy, the word responsibility has at least two related meanings: The obligation to answer for actions. Often this means answering to some specified authority. The recognition that in order to achieve one's purposes, one must act oneself ("t, and must possess both passion for his avocation and the capacity to distance himself from the subject of his exertions (the governed).
1 See also
- SociologySociology is the study of social rules and processes that bind and separate people not only as individuals, but as members of associations, groups, and institutions. A typical textbook definition of sociology calls it the study of the social lives of huma
- PoliticsPolitics is the process and method of decision-making for groups of human beings. Although it is generally applied to governments, politics is also observed in all human group interactions including corporate, academic, and religious. Political science is
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