Gernot Böhme

Die Finalisierung der Wissenschaft

Abstract Contemporary science is characterized by a specific latitude for alternative developments. This means that science is open for external (economic, social, political) purposes to become the guide-lines of the development of theory. The transition to such a structure is here defined as „the finalization of science“. This notion must be distinguished from traditional forms of the „application“ of theoretical results. To explicate it, assumptions are developed relating to the structure and bearing of the self-regulatives operative in contemporary science. Three causes are suggested of the decline in the internal determination of the development of science: The achievement of a state of „theoretical maturity“ in fundamental disciplines (e.g., physics and chemistry); partial renunciation of the demand for causal explication and transition to functionalist sciences (e.g., psychology); the necessity of combining ecological approaches with the traditional analytical premises in different scientific disciplines. The perspective of the finalization of science embodies a growing coincidence of theoretical aims and social norms. Zusammenfassung Die Wissenschaft der Gegenwart ist durch einen spezifischen Alternativspielraum der Entwicklung gekennzeichnet: Sie ist offen dafür, daß externe (ökonomische, soziale, politische) Zwecke zum Entwicklungsleitfaden der Theorie werden. Der Übergang zu einer solchen Struktur wird als „Finalisierung der Wissenschaft“ definiert. Sie ist abzusetzen von traditionellen Formen der „Anwendung“ theoretischer Ergebnisse. Zu ihrer Erklärung werden Annahmen über Struktur und Reichweite der in der gegenwärtigen Wissenschaft geltenden Eigenregulative entwickelt. Drei Gründe werden für die Abnahme interner Determinierung der Wissenschaftsentwicklung gesehen: Das Erreichen eines Zustands „theoretischer Reife“ in grundlegenden Disziplinen (z. B. Physik und Chemie); der partielle Verzicht auf die Forderung kausaler Erklärung und der Übergang zu funktionalistischen Wissenschaften (z. B. Psychologie);die Notwendigkeit, ökologische Betrachtungsweisen mit den traditionellen Analyseansätzen der wissenschaftlichen Disziplinen zu verbinden. In der Perspektive der Finalisierung der Wissenschaft liegt eine zunehmende Koinzidenz von theoretischen Zwecken und sozialen Normen.

Finalization in science

The expansion of science Derek de Solla Price has calculated that the number of scientists is growing three times as fast as the world population has to an increasing degree become subject to limitations. The rise in the social investments necessary for continued scientific growth will increasingly provoke political resistance, especially as there is no dependable procedure at present for analysing the scientific results of increased outlays 1. The attempts to rationalize science policy by a systems approach to the determination of priorities and by the use of analytic methods have so far been futile. It is not clear what elements and processes in science can be consciously regulated, and by what means this could be accomplished, nor are there any procedures at hand to control or to evaluate the effects of the venture. Scientists themselves to an increasing degree tend to view the orientation of science towards economic, military and infrastructural goals as being problematic. On the one side this reflects their concern that this orientation may hinder or distort theoretical progress, on the other it reflects the insight that as long as the prevailing goal-orientations remain operative the demand for a socially relevant science must remain unfulfilled. It is our assumption that the self-examination called forth within science by the impact of these problems both reveals and promotes a fundamental

The Knowledge society : the growing impact of scientific knowledge on social relations

I The Design of Knowledge Society.- The Growing Impact of Scientific Knowledge on Social Relations.- Finite Human Capacities and the Pattern of Social Stratification in a Knowledge Society.- II The Social Role of Men of Knowledge.- Demarcation as a Strategy of Exclusion: Philosophers and Sophists.- Scientists Protect Their Cognitive Authority: The Status Degradation Ceremony of Sir Cyril Burt.- The Reproduction of Objective Knowledge: Common Sense Reasoning in Medical Decision Making.- III Processes of Scientification.- The Scientification of Police Work.- The Scientification of Architecture.- Knowledge Form and Scientific Community: Early Experimental Biology and the Marine Biological Laboratory.

Contribution to the Critique of the Aesthetic Economy

This article charts the emergence since the 1950s of a new value category, staging value, which arises when capitalism moves from addressing peoples needs to exploiting their desires. Staging values serve the intensification and heightening of life rather than the satisfaction of primary needs. The article reevaluates successive theories on the relationship between aesthetics and the economy in the light of these changes, and suggests the continued relevance of critical theory in the era of the aesthetic economy.

The ‘Scientification’ of Technology

In medieval times the construction of cathedrals was assigned to architectural workshops. For the organization and the techniques of construction the architects and craftsmen relied on traditional knowledge which was often kept secret by the rules of the guilds and which was only slightly modified with the acquisition of new knowledge. The construction of the largest cathedral of late medieval times, the cathedral of Milan, begun in 1386, raised unexpected problems of mathematics and statics (1). The recently acquired economic and political status of Milan called for the largest building of the period, but the city desired that the design did not follow northern European rules of construction. Within the Roman tradition of Lombardian aesthetics the northern Gothic style was considered too arching and the supporting system of pillars and flying butresses was felt to be confusing. Further, this style was determined by a well-established principle of construction which stipulated that the height of the church be equal to its width. The Milanese workshop, however, decided to work from an equilateral triangle as cross section. They hoped that the less arching elevation of this design would allow for the elimination of the confusing system of support, even if the size of the cathedral exceeded the Gothic constructions.

The structures and prospects of knowledge society

The first part of this article reviews the literature on the knowledge society as well as related concepts like post-industrial society and information society. In the second part the thesis is put forward that the concept of knowledge society no longer designates a trend of social development, but characterizes the social reality of advanced societies in a certain perspective. Knowledge as cultural capital has become a productive force, a major sector of the economy, a power resource both on the national and the international level, and finally the basis of life-chances for the individual and of social ranking. But knowledge society has also produced its own problems: zero growth of financial resources for science and education, overcapacities in military R and D, new dependencies both in the private sector (on experts) and in the international sector (North-South opposition). The future perspectives of knowledge society are ambivalent. The author perceives the nightmare of a registration society on the one hand, and a new Enlightenment on the other.

The Growing Impact of Scientific Knowledge on Social Relations

Despite many insightful, sophisticated and engaged inquiries into the interrelation of science and society, particularly in the 1920s and early 1930s and again in the 1960s and early 1970s, the void of a theory of society which captures the dynamics of science, technology and society remains to a significant extent. The fundamental issues of “the modes of interplay between society, culture and science are with us still” (1). Of course, we cannot hope to significantly reduce the need for such a theory here; however, we are convinced that a new approach is required. Our effort can only be seen as preliminary rather than exhaustive. Like some previous approaches, it too is based on the assumption that social change in industrial society and therefore the makeup of its social relations are increasingly tied to “advances” in scientific knowledge.

Alternatives in Science — Alternatives to Science?

This essay is a retrospective reflection on the project ‘Alternatives in Science’ carried out at the Max-Planck Institute in Starnberg for the Study of the Conditions of Human Life in the Modern World. The aim of the project was to examine the determination of alternatives in science through socially determined problem-situations and goal-orientations. The purpose of the present essay is to show in what way the possibility of such alternatives could be thought of within the frame of the epistemology and philosophy of science. Tracing out this possibility constitutes the basis for the main thesis: There exists a social interest not only in the utilization of scientific knowledge but also in its production.

The Techno-Structures of Society

According to this famous quotation from Hegel, philosophy arrives late on the scene. I ask myself whether sociology does not come even later, perhaps too late. If the desideratum of a sociology of technology was first voiced in 1982’ and sociological research on technology has only recently been established, then sociology really is too late. Of course, in a certain respect there has been a sociology of technology for a long time, at least since Marx in the traditional sense of &dquo;Technology and Social Change&dquo;. Traditionally, technology has been viewed as a cause or

Technical Gadgetry: Technological Development in the Aesthetic Economy:

The conception of the nature of modern technology and the understanding of its history is largely determined by Marx: technology is instrumental appropriation of nature and its development was driven by the bourgeoisie and capitalism. To this familiar conception the article opposes the concept of two technology types, which we find in the early modern engineer Salomon de Caus: useful and enjoyable technology. Enjoyable technology, which serves pleasure and not production, originates in the orientation to curiosities and representation at royal courts, limited neither by guild conservatism nor by considerations of profit. Precisely for this reason courtly technology was particularly creative. Against this historical background the article examines contemporary technological developments in the period of the transformation of capitalism into the aesthetic economy, in which technology development (apart from war) increasingly serves pleasure. Technology becomes plaything and life-style gadget. An explicit consumption of technology has emerged, in which Marx’s ideal obsolescence plays a leading role.