ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies some elements of the differentiation of modern scientific knowledge by recalling how it emerged from the background of existing culture in the history of western societies. It presents the forces of instrumentalism that have been released in modern societies and explain why the notion of objective natural knowledge resonates so effectively with the existing social institutions. If knowledge is reduced to information it becomes impersonal. The chapter examines in what sense modern knowledge, while disembedded and disembodied in principle, is still contingent upon local contexts and personal skills. It also examines why efforts to bridge the gap between modern and traditional modes of natural knowledge are bound to fail and why the tension between science and ethics cannot be overcome. Science can only contribute to technology, if the ways that things are done can be changed in a society.
