ABSTRACT
First, he asks what it means to make a contribution to knowledge. This immediately raises questions to do with the nature of truth. In considering this matter, Williams draws on Rorty and also on Davidson. Both of these philosophers reject any notion of absolute truth and argue that claims to truth rest upon interpretation and justification; that is, on belief. What can be justified is what is true. Justification is accomplished in discourse and debate and, therefore, inevitably involves contention. As we struggle together to justify the assertions we make on the basis of belief statements, we create fuzzy narratives of experience. Justification and validity arise in complex social acts in which people refer to the sensuous experience they have in common of the real world they live in. What people are doing, as they engage in this way, is exchanging propositions, and the product of the inquiry process is a challenge to existing ways of thinking; that is, transformation and movement in the nature of the propositional beliefs held by the inquirers. As such movement occurs people find themselves fitting into the social nexus in a different way. Making a contribution to knowledge is, therefore, engaging in this social process so as to produce movement in thought and so action. This is a social perspective on research, where to research means to participate in processes of argumentation around belief statements. To participate in this way is to take up one’s ethical responsibility as a member of a community of researchers.
