"The power of formulating one's own argument" (Christine Porcaro, week 15, substantive)

When I first printed out Science as a Vocation I was not very excited at all to read it. I did not think it was going to be interesting and I was really dreading it. BUT, as soon as I started reading it, I became very interested. I am sure that this was Prof. Pervez's intent, but I was able to see a strong connection between the reading and our class. Throughout this semester we have been given facts about IR theory, opinions about different theories and varying opinions from the varying articles we have read. Max Weber talks about how a lecturer should not impose his/her opinion on the students. "It is irresponsible for such a teacher to fail to provide his listeners, as is his duty, with his knowledge and academic experience, while imposing on them his knowledge and academic experience, while imposing on them his personal political opinions."With this said I feel that this semester we have been given the tools to create our own opinion without being overwhelmed or persuaded by the opinion of the professor. I think that is important because when trying to form your own opinion it can easily be over shadowed if you have been presented with biased facts. I do, however, encourage within a class a "devil's advocate" kind of discussion to occur. In a lecture structured type class this is not something that can happen...so in this case Max Weber is correct in saying that personal opinion needs to be left at the door if one is going to do the lecture any justice. But in a smaller type classroom to be able to present an opinion or argument, not as one's own but just as an alternative argument, I feel that that can create even more discussion and more ideas to come forth. It makes students think more about how they view something so that they can form their own argument based upon the facts already presented to them. So when looking back on this semester I feel that this class has done a good job of combining a lecture based class and discussion based class. Max Weber claims that it is very difficult as a teacher to have students think about things independently, which I completely agree. It is very easy for a student to just shut off their brain right after class. What I thought was interesting was that I feel that the final paper does just that. It makes students think independently about how they perceive international relations. Of course no argument will be perfect but as Max Weber states, "to be superseded scientifically is not simply our fate but our goal. We cannot work without living in hope that others will advance beyond us. In principle, the progress is infinite."