The ecology of knowledge: Linking the natural and social sciences

Abstract

In the context of global crisis the Bacon-Descartes model of exact science, with its mechanistic world view and its doctrine of progress in man's mastery of nature, is being replaced by a more coherent philosophy of science based on ecosystem concepts. The late twentieth century, it seems, marks the end of centuries of positivism and the beginning of an age of ecoscience. This paper looks at the origins of the discredited positivist claims for an objective scientific method and proposes the ecology of knowledge as a more appropriate theory, both for the sciences and for ordinary knowledge. From this viewpoint claims for a fundamental division between the natural and social sciences on the basis of method and subject matter can no longer be sustained. Moreover, as the feminist and deep ecology movements join in condemning the tradition of patriarchal, exploitative science, a new conceptual framework is emerging in which science is being directed towards more holistic views and more democratic processes, guided by a more socially and environmentally responsible ethic.