THE STATUS OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

Abstract

Let me begin by postulating that the high status now enjoyed by science is precarious. It is founded on fallacies in the minds of many people about the nature of science. These fallacies are widespread not only in the public mind but in the minds of scientists themselves because they have failed to recognise the significance of the human element in science. The general public entertains a different fallacy based on the belief that science's main role is a technological one, destined to help us improve material welfare and wage war. My address discusses the nature and effects of these fallacies, and particularly the way in which they have reduced the status of the social sciences, not only in the minds of other scientists, but in the mind of the general public as well.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,