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Finalization in Science

The Social Orientation of Scientific Progress

  • Book
  • © 1983

Overview

Authors:
  1. Gernot Böhme
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  2. Wolfgang Daele
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  3. Rainer Hohlfeld
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  4. Wolfgang Krohn
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  5. Wolf Schäfer
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Editors:
  1. Wolf Schäfer

    1. Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt/Main, Germany

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Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science (BSPS, volume 77)

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xviii
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  2. Authors’ Introduction

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. Introduction

      • Gernot Böhme, Wolfgang Van Den Daele, Rainer Hohlfeld, Wolfgang Krohn, Wolf Schäfer
      Pages 3-11

  3. Case Studies

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 13-13
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    2. Summary of Contributions

      • Gernot Böhme, Wolfgang Van Den Daele, Rainer Hohlfeld, Wolfgang Krohn, Wolf Schäfer
      Pages 15-16

    3. Agricultural Chemistry. The Origin and Structure of a Finalized Science

      • Wolfgang Krohn, Wolf Schäfer
      Pages 17-52

    4. Autonomization and Finalization: a Comparison of Fermentation Research and Fluid Mechanics

      • Gernot Böhme
      Pages 53-91

    5. Cancer research. A Study of Praxis-Related Theoretical Developments in Chemistry, The Biosciences and Medicine

      • Rainer Hohlfeld
      Pages 93-126

  4. Theoretical Considerations

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 127-127
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    2. Summary of Contributions

      • Gernot Böhme, Wolfgang Van Den Daele, Rainer Hohlfeld, Wolfgang Krohn, Wolf Schäfer
      Pages 129-130

    3. Finalization Revisited

      • Gernot Böhme, Wolfgang Van Den Daele, Rainer Hohlfeld
      Pages 131-172

    4. The Scientification of Technology

      • Gernot Böhme, Wolfgang Van Den Daele, Wolfgang Krohn
      Pages 173-205

    5. Normative Finalization

      • Wolf Schäfer
      Pages 207-231

  5. Prospects

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 233-233
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    2. Summary of Contributions

      • Gernot Böhme, Wolfgang Van Den Daele, Rainer Hohlfeld, Wolfgang Krohn, Wolf Schäfer
      Pages 235-236

    3. Science in a Crisis of Legitimation

      • Wolfgang Van Den Daele, Wolfgang Krohn
      Pages 237-250

    4. Towards a Social Science of Nature

      • Gernot Böhme, Wolf Schäfer
      Pages 251-269

  6. Appendix

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 271-271
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    2. Introductory Note

      • Gernot Böhme, Wolfgang Van Den Daele, Rainer Hohlfeld, Wolfgang Krohn, Wolf Schäfer
      Pages 273-274

    3. The Finalization Debate: A Reply to Our Critics

      • Wolf Schäfer
      Pages 275-299
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Keywords

About this book

These essays on Finalization in Science - The Social Orientation of Scientific Progress comprise a remarkable, problematic and controversial book. The authors propose a thesis about the social direction of scientific research which was the occasion of a lively and often bitter debate in Germany from 1976 to 1982. Their provocative thesis, briefly, is this: that modern science converges, historically, to the development of a number of 'closed theories', i. e. stable and relatively completed sciences, no longer to be improved by small changes but only by major changes in an entire theoretical structure. Further: that at such a stage of 'mature theory', the formerly viable norm of intra-scientific autonomy may appropriately be replaced by the social direction' of further scientific research (within such a 'mature' field) for socially relevant or, we may bluntly say, 'task-oriented' purposes. This is nothing less than a theory for the planning and social directing of science, under certain specific conditions. Understandably, it raised the sharp objections that such an approach would subordinate scientific inquiry as a free and untrammeled search for truth to the dictates of social relevance and dominant interests, even possibly to dictation and control for particularistic social and political interests.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt/Main, Germany

    Wolf Schäfer

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Finalization in Science

  • Book Subtitle: The Social Orientation of Scientific Progress

  • Authors: Gernot Böhme, Wolfgang Daele, Rainer Hohlfeld, Wolfgang Krohn, Wolf Schäfer

  • Editors: Wolf Schäfer

  • Series Title: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7080-9

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland 1983

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-90-277-1549-4Published: 30 September 1983

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-94-009-7082-3Published: 17 October 2011

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-009-7080-9Published: 06 December 2012

  • Series ISSN: 0068-0346

  • Series E-ISSN: 2214-7942

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XVIII, 318

  • Additional Information: Originally published in German

  • Topics: Philosophy of Science

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