ABSTRACT
The sociology of science and technology in general, and that of social science and social engineering in particular, is an underdeveloped discipline. The metaphysical philosophies from which the social sciences stemmed actually asserted that the valuations could themselves be objective; this was, indeed, the metaphysical element in these philosophies. Physicists' discoveries and inventions in the social field must generally be applied by the collectivities, that is, in the first place the state and subordinate public communities. Another cause of greater difficulties in social research is related to the role of value premises for that research. It is true that, in principle, all scientific and technological work has to be based on value premises. The special position of social scientists and technologists has, in the great tradition, particularly perhaps in economics, generally been accepted as a challenge.
