Science in the Context of Industrial Application: The Case of the Philips Natuurkundig Laboratorium

Abstract

In this chapter the history of the Philips Natuurkundig Laboratorium is used for a critical analysis of terms such as “fundamental”, “applied”, “Mode-1” and “Mode-2”. In the first place, it is made clear that such terms often had a rhetorical value rather than one that aims at explaining different research contents. In the second place it is shown that the normal use of those terms contains a confusion of dichotomies that needs to be disentangled in order to reach a more proper way of distinguishing between different types of research.