ABSTRACT
The only course open to the social sciences, says Dr. Popper, is to tackle the practical problems of ones time with the help of the theoretical methods which are fundamentally the same in all sciences. The social engineer believes that man is the master of his own destiny. But the history of man is fundamentally different from the face of the earth, and so is the science of it. The beginning of social science is marked by the distinction between two different elements in mans environment and his social environment. The dualism of facts and decisions implies also that existing normative laws depend on us. The dualism distinction between a mechanistic and a voluntaristic realm is needed for the view that man is the master of his destiny and that society can be shaped and controlled by social engineering. Public criticism need not be anything like science.
