Filling the gap between discussions on science and scientists' everyday activities: applying the autopoiesis system theory to scientific knowledge

Abstract

This study examines how the micro-conditions of scientists in the accretion of their daily activities - publishing - create a macro-essence that philosophers and scientific historians call “the essence of science”. By applying the autopoiesis system theory to the aggregation of publications in scientific journals - the process by which the continuation of micro-activity (a system's operation) creates a macro-construction (the system's structure) - we are able to bridge the gap between discussions about science and scientists' actual activities. This point of view gave us new insight into and an empirical perspective on how the difference between the two cultures (as popularized by C.P. Snow) or the cultural difference between disciplines can be described by the system's operation, and also on how the system's two boundaries (i.e. the boundary between science and non-science and the boundary between science and society) can be constructed in consideration of the validation boundary in the journal system and in society.