ArticleTheoretical medicine and bioethics2018
The worthless remains of a physician's calling: Max Weber, William Osler, and the last virtue of physicians.
Article in Theoretical medicine and bioethics, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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3 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Healer's Heartache: Reforming Medicine from the Rough Ground.Journal of general internal medicine · 2026Review
- A "stick to beat you with"? Advocating for a Critical Close Reading of 'Vocation' Among Evangelical Medics in England.Journal of religion and health · 2022Article
- Understanding modern, technological medicine: enchanted, disenchanted, or other?Theoretical medicine and bioethics · 2018Article
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1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
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Abstract
On the centenary of Max Weber's "Science as a Vocation," his essay still performs interpretative work. In it, Weber argues that the vocation of a scientist is to produce specialized, rationalized knowledge that will be superseded. Weber says this vocation is a rationalized version of the Protestant conception of calling or vocation (Beruf), tragically disenchanting the world and leaving the idea of calling as a worthless remains (caput mortuum). A similar trajectory can be seen in the physician William Osler's writings, especially his essay "Internal Medicine as a Vocation," in which the calling of a physician is described as both rational and noble. While Osler's conception of the physician's vocation has been formative for contemporary medicine, physicians are reporting burnout and leaving medical practice at escalating rates. As physicians abandon their noble vocations, an alternative conception of a physician's vocation is needed. From the worthless remains of the physician's rational and noble vocation, the labor of a physician can find grounding in humility.
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