Goal Rationality in Science and Technology. An Epistemological Perspective

Abstract

According to one strong intuition, what distinguish science from technology are the ultimate goals of these activities: while the goal of technology is practical usefulness, the goal of science is truth. The question raised in this paper is whether, and to what extent, this means that goal setting rationality is also different in the two domains. It is argued, preliminarily, that it is not: the theory of goal rationality in management and technology can be profitably transferred to the scientific context. This conjecture is substantiated partly by remarking on its intrinsic plausibility and partly, and above all, by appealing to its systematic advantages. As for the latter, the conjecture is applied to four closely related epistemological debates, with pragmatist ingredients, concerning truth as a goal of inquiry. It is argued that these otherwise puzzling debates can, in this way, be fruitfully reconstructed and perhaps even resolved.