The Necessary Tension Between Reality And Social Factors Of Science

The advancement of science has always been an important problem in the studies of Philosophy of Science. During the past twenty years, two pictures of science have been in conflict. The famous philosopher of science, Philip Kitcher, proposes his own perspective on the advancement of science, and formed a relatively neutral idea.In the beginning of this article, how Kitcher puts forward a "modest realism" is discussed. He criticizes the improper elements in the two conflicting pictures of science and points out the reasonable elements in the pictures. Based on that, Kitcher proposes a "modest realism" which gives attention to both the reality of science and the social factors' affect to science. Then, Kitcher's perspective on scientific significance is discussed. From Kitcher's arguments we can see that, in his opinion, what we need from science is neither the satisfaction of cognitive desires, nor the enrichment of the total knowledge of human, but "to answer the right questions in right ways." Based on that, Kitcher finds a joint of the reality of science and the social factors' affect to science. He proposes an ideal picture of the advancement of science, a "Well-ordered Science" based on an "Enlightened Democracy". In the third part of this article, the concept of "Well-ordered Science" is discussed, and the problems of recent scientific research and the responsibility of recent science are analyzed.In the latter part of this article, some famous scholars' comments on Kitcher's theory are introduced. And the author compares Kitcher's theory with the ideas of the SSK. In the author's opinion, Kitcher's work on the advancement of science is creative. However, there are still some problems in his theory. The author puts forward a series of his own perspectives which are in the purpose of solving these problems and bring some enlightening thoughts.