Introduction

In the previous section we gave an analysis of the processes whereby scientific results are achieved and scientific knowledge can come to be. We showed how scientific inquiry is a human activity, in the short run imperfect and fallible, and in the long run conditioned by social influences acting in an extended time. For the sake of simplicity, we restricted our discussion mainly to a matured ‘pure’ science and also assumed the presence of the institutions and social practices necessary for the accomplishment of the various social tasks involved. On the basis of the materials developed there, we can now enrich our analysis to include the social aspects of the work and so be in a position to analyse the social problems of science created by the conditions of the present and the near future. ¹