Die Finalisierung der Wissenschaft / The Finalization of Science

Abstract

Abstract Contemporary science is characterized by a specific latitude for alternative developments. This means that science is open for external (economic, social, political) purposes to become the guide-lines of the development of theory. The transition to such a structure is here defined as „the finalization of science“. This notion must be distinguished from traditional forms of the „application“ of theoretical results. To explicate it, assumptions are developed relating to the structure and bearing of the self-regulatives operative in contemporary science. Three causes are suggested of the decline in the internal determination of the development of science: The achievement of a state of „theoretical maturity“ in fundamental disciplines (e.g., physics and chemistry); partial renunciation of the demand for causal explication and transition to functionalist sciences (e.g., psychology); the necessity of combining ecological approaches with the traditional analytical premises in different scientific disciplines. The perspective of the finalization of science embodies a growing coincidence of theoretical aims and social norms.