ABSTRACT
That prioritizing the materialist strategies needs explanation has been at the core of the discussion of the previous two chapters. I have argued that the relevant explanation cannot be derived simply from appeal to the general objective of gaining understanding of phenomena. Instead, it follows from mutually reinforcing interactions that exist between inquiry conducted under the materialist strategies and the modern values of control. In the course of the argument, the suggestion has repeatedly surfaced that there may be other strategies, alternatives to the materialist strategies, with mutually reinforcing interactions with value complexes that clash with the modern values of control, that under the appropriate material and social conditions might frame fruitful scientific (systematic empirical) inquiry. Clearly the argument would be strengthened if some alternative strategies were to be concretely identified and if, at least in an anticipatory way, their potential to produce theories that manifest the cognitive values to a high degree were displayed.
