1. Normative Reflexions on Constructivist Approaches to Science and Technology.
- Author
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Radder, Hans
- Subjects
- *
NORMATIVITY (Ethics) , *CONSTRUCTIVISM (Philosophy) , *REFLEXIVITY , *SCIENCE , *PERSONALITY & culture , *SOCIOLOGY of knowledge - Abstract
The article discusses normative reflexions on constructivist approaches to science and technology. Systematic and fundamental thinking on normative, or normatively relevant, questions is virtually absent in the highly influential constructivist studies of science and technology. The article after reviewing and assessing the role of normativity and reflexivity, in so far as it has been acknowledged within constructivism, presents a number of normative reflexions. Three general approaches--social constructivism, ethnography and actor-network theory--are analyzed in detail. The main themes of these analytical and critical reflexions are: missing issues, locality, relativism, the winner's perspective, and technoscientific success. It turns out that constructivist views concerning these themes have a number of normatively questionable consequences. These consequences can be avoided if certain constructivist assumptions, which are empirically unwarranted or unnecessary anyway, are rejected. Instead, some constructive alternatives are proposed for a social study of science and technology that is both empirically adequate and normatively satisfactory. These alternatives concern the significance of non-local patterns. They do not imply a return to the often simplistic, universal schemes that have been put forward so many times by philosophers of science and technology.
- Published
- 1992
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