Scientific knowledge and the malleability of societal conditions

Bechmann, G.
Vortrag auf dem 36. World Congress. International Institute of Sociology: Social Change in the Age of Globalization.
Peking, China, 07. - 11.07.2004

Abstract

The difference or distinction that there ought to be a clear separation between the utility and the truth of scientific knowledge is an important distinction in the sociology of science which means the difference between knowledge and action. It is precisely the question about the kinds of attributes that ought to characterize scientific knowledge if it is to be "powerful" or useful in practice that we plan to examine in this paper.

I will examine the issue of the practicality of scientific knowledge with particular reference to environmental knowledge and by implication the bases for effective policy advice in a number of steps:

• I will briefly refer to the prevailing self-understanding of social scientists when it comes to the usefulness and practical success of their knowledge,
• I will describe the typical response of the social science to the common observation that there efforts in generating useful knowledge is compared to the natural sciences, almost hopelessly inferior as the result of the immense complexity of the social world and
• I will address the question what attributes social sciences knowledge should have in order to be useful.

This analysis benefits from an examination of the nature and the practical success of Keynesian economic inquiry. It came be shown that the usual attributes held responsible for the societal failure of social science knowledge represent an inadequate account of what might make social science knowledge useful. Finally, I will try to make the case that these observations apply to natural science knowledge as well.