Suchergebnisse

In this paper, two alternative naturalistic standpoints on the relations between language, human consciousness and social life are contrasted. The first, dubbed "intrinsic naturalism," is advocated among others by the realist philosopher John Searle; it starts with intrinsic intentionality and consciousness emerging from the brain, explains language as an outgrowth of consciousness and ends with institutional reality being created by language‐use. That standpoint leans on what may be described as the standard interpretation of Darwinian evolution. The other type of naturalism, in contrast, making use of the concept of evolutionary niches, suggests that the search for the explanatory mechanisms of language and consciousness should begin with the human community (of social action), because that is the cultural niche for everything distinctively human to evolve, including language and human consciousness.

En el presente artículo se analizan los enfoques relacionalistas de las ciencias sociales en términos de una distinción conceptual entre la "filosofización de la sociología" y la "sociologización de la filosofía". Estos marcan dos actitudes diferentes con respecto a la metafísica filosófica y sus compromisos ontológicos. El pragmatismo de los autores tiene su origen en el relacionalismo metodológico de Dewey, el cual se compara con los enfoques realistas con un compromiso ontológico, así como con el relacionalismo metodológico de Bourdieu. Se argumenta que la filosofía pragmática de las ciencias sociales es una herramienta adecuada para ayudar a los científicos sociales en su labor metodológica, en particular en lo que respecta a los estudios de casos basados en problemas.

In this article, relationalist approaches to social sciences are analyzed in terms of a conceptual distinction between "philosophizing sociology" and "sociologizing philosophy." These mark two different attitudes toward philosophical metaphysics and ontological commitments. The authors' own pragmatist methodological relationalism of Deweyan origin is compared with ontologically committed realist approaches, as well as with Bourdieuan methodological relationalism. It is argued that pragmatist philosophy of social sciences is an appropriate tool for assisting social scientists in their methodological work, especially as regards problem-driven case studies.

This article examines the emerging field of today's superscience—biotechnology— within the context of the national innovation system of one small country, namely Finland. This context is explored primarily through the practices of one particular Finnish biotechnology center, BioCity. The Silicon Valley rhetoric, which every self-respecting technology project around the world seems to incorporate into its own vocabulary, is compared with the everyday "reality" of this biotechnology center. The article focuses on the implementation of technology policy, organized following the "triple helix" model, in the field of biotechnology. Some comparisons with different countries are also made to give a picture of Finland in relation with the European life sciences industry. The article is concluded by a consideration of the future prospects of BioCity and Finnish biotechnology.