In 1917 Max Weber gave his lecture Wissenschaft als Beruf, Science as a Vocation, in Munich. He said that a scholar must be able to believe that the fate of his soul depends on one detail: ob er dies, gerade diese Konjektur an dieser Stelle dieser Handschrift richtig macht. That means whether he gets this conjecture right, exactly this one, at this point in this manuscript. Anyone who cannot do this, Weber said, der bleibe der Wissenschaft nur ja fern. He should stay away from science.