Naprawianie świata. O powikłanych związkach wiedzy i praktyki
Repairing the World. The Complicated Relationships of Knowledge and Practice

Summary/Abstract: A simple, journalist scheme indicates that knowledge qualified to be scientific directly and fundamentally changes – thanks to its technological applications – the social world. The author presents arguments indicating that things are not that simple for several reasons. Firstly, historians of science argue that many fundamental technologies were created without a clear reference to scientific knowledge, and the knowledge accumulated by technologists often arises outside the areas of scientific theory. Secondly, we also know that what is technically possible is not necessarily socially possible – not least because of costs, cultural constraints or social practices that we are not willing to give up. Thirdly, it is increasingly clear that the increase in scientific is primarily the result of the decision to allocate more and more resources to applied research. This means, however, that the pursuit of knowledge results not so much from the pressure to seek scientific truth, but from the values that we consider important. Fourthly, this leads to a reorientation in science, which allows contesting the thesis about the objectivity of scientific cognition in various ways: due to methodological disputes conducted by philosophers of science, the so-called ‘scientific method’ does not guarantee the objectivity of scientific cognition. Consequently, the Enlightenment vision of science, which collapsed under the pressure of post-modernism, ceases to be the basic frame of reference on which we try to improve our collective life. We need this frame only when we cannot imagine this life without appealing to authorities that allow the resolution of essentially undecidable disputes.

• Details
• Contents