Abstract

ESTRADA SAAVEDRA, Marco. Commitment or Knowledge?. Relac. Estud. hist. soc. [online]. 2014, vol.35, n.137, pp.55-71. ISSN 2448-7554.

The focus of this essay is the complex and ambiguous issue of the relations between ethical and political commitment and the generation of knowledge in the Social Sciences, in response to the question of whether there exists an ethics that social scientists should adopt in their research. I suggest that science and politics are two spheres of human activity with distinct logics and goals. Hence, scientific knowledge must be evaluated, theoretically, methodologically and scientifically, in terms of its production of knowledge. Any other goal beyond this must be considered secondary, though not irrelevant. Politics, in contrast, is concerned with co-existence in a shared, plural world, and is only possible in terms of the generation of power. A scientist who acts politically is just one more citizen in the public space, and her/his interventions there must be judged by the criteria of the political world.

Keywords : science; politics; ethics.

        · abstract in Spanish | French     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )