The Charisma of Reason during the Re-enchantment of the World

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article discusses the problem of legitimation or substantiation of science in the current postmodern situation. Despite the shaken faith in ‘grand narratives’, science retains a special cognitive status and a special place in society. To explain this phenomenon, Max Weber’s concept of types of rationality and types of domination is used. The author associates Weber’s concept of the ‘disenchantment of the world’ with the concept of progress. It is shown that the phenomenon of the ‘re-enchantment of the world’ cannot be considered a regression since it depends on the advancement of science and technology. At present, the concept of progress is being replaced by the concept of complication. It is shown that in the situation of the complication and ‘re-enchantment of the world’, the model of rationality is technoscience, i.e., science with its own technical conditions, possibilities, and applications. Technoscience is both an ideal type and concrete historical phenomenon. It forms a theoretical and practical space in which the rational and the extraordinary can coexist. This makes it possible to assert that today’s science can lay claim to the charismatic type of domination, thereby reviving the unviable, according to Max Weber, phenomenon of ‘the charisma of reason’.