Farewell to Criteriology

Abstract

Criteriology is the quest for permanent or stable criteria of rationality founded in the desire for objectivism and the belief that we must somehow transcend the limitations to knowing that are the inevitable consequence of our sociotemporal perspective as knowers. The project of criteriology has, in turn, shaped our way of thinking about the epistemology of social inquiry. This article offers a way of redefining social inquiry without recourse to criteriology. It presents a view of social inquiry as practical philosophy and discusses the vision that enables that practice, the conditions that sustain that practice, and the place of such a practice in society.