ABSTRACT
The starting point of this paper is the observation and claim of Flyvbjerg (2001) – based on Aristotle (1955) – that there are several, rather than just one, intellectual virtues that researchers can pay attention to: episteme, techne and phronesis. The major aim of this paper is to cross-examine this three-item typology of intellectual virtues and especially the idea of phronetic social science (PSS) – the one forcefully promoted by Flyvbjerg regarding social sciences – against the key ideas of interventionist research (IVR). For Flyvbjerg, PSS represents science which has a practical, yet simultaneously value-sensitive agenda, leading to ‘social science that matters’. Flyvbjerg regards PSS as applying the virtue of techne ‘with head on it’ (making it thereby phronetic), whereas for him, techne alone represents ‘headless social engineering’. PSS stresses the
importance of dialogue with the targets of research and that values and power issues are taken into consideration.
