看不见的手"与科学的成功

Invisible Hands" and the Success of Science

戴维·霍尔依据看不见的手的机制来解释科学的成功。作者对于霍尔的科学成功的看不见的手的解释提出了两个方面的挑战:首先,霍尔没有提供使人折服的理由让人相信科学家主要受到了自我利益的驱动。其次,既然调节科学家的相互交往活动的做法和制度都是本着扩展我们关于世界的知识的目的而设计出来的,那么,一种看不见的手的解释似乎就显得不够充分了。作者认为,对于科学的成功,无论是传统的直接的解释还是霍尔的看不见的手的解释都是不完全的。为此,作者提出用一个被隐藏的手的解释来加以补充。

David Hull accounts for the success of science in term of an invisible hand mechanism. The author is challenging that Hull has not provided compelling reasons for believing that scientists are primarily motivated by selfinterest. Second, because the practices and institutions that mediate the interactions of scientists were designed with the intention of extending our knowledge of the world, an invisible hand explanation for the success of science seems inadequate. Neither the traditional direct explanation nor Hull's invisible hand explanation for the success of science is complete. Instead, the author has suggested that we supplement these explanations with a hidden hand explanation, attributing some significant measure of the success of science to the fact that the constitutive institutions and practice were designed with the goal of extending our knowledge.