On the essential role of organized skepticism in science’s “internal and lawful autonomy” (Eigengesetzlichkeit)

Abstract

The institution of science is said to be under pressure from political, economic and social interests, manifested in alleged bureaucratization, managerial reforms, anti-intellectual movements on university campuses, and widespread questioning of expert knowledge in society. Commercialization of academic publishing and the growth of competitive funding have increased the importance of journal and grant peer review in science and seem also to have contributed to the proliferation of false impressions about the nature of scientific knowledge production and science’s role in society. In this article, these developments are problematized and put into perspective with the help of classic sociological theory in a Weberian and Mertonian tradition, in an attempt to shed new light on the debate on the governance and institutional autonomy of science. First, academic science is identified as a Weberian value sphere with “internal and lawful autonomy” ( Eigengesetzlichkeit), and the broader functionalist context of this supposition is discussed. Second, Merton’s theory of the normative structure of science is used to give specific content to Eigengesetzlichkeit in the case of science. Third, the concept of organized skepticism is developed to represent a range of social patterns ubiquitous in scientific practice, and its epistemological and sociological foundations are discussed. Organized skepticism is thus identified as the essential feature of science’s Eigengesetzlichkeit.