New social knowledge alters the social world rather than merely describing it

Evidence

The reason for this is the circularity of social knowledge, which affects in the first instance the social rather than the natural world. In conditions of modernity, the social world can never form a stable environment in terms of the input of new knowledge about its character and functioning. New knowledge (concepts, theories, findings) does not simply render the social world more transparent, but alters its nature, spinning it off in novel directions. The impact of this phenomenon is fundamental to the juggernaut-like quality of modernity and affects socialised nature as well as social institutions themselves. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 363

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to the reader’s frame: reflexivity destabilizes the very institutions (like Lord Darlington’s household) whose authority Stevens trusts — the institution’s moral grounding shifts precisely because social knowledge is circular. — connects to: Social science knowledge changes the social world it studies. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 103; Knowledge of social life does not produce greater control over fate — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 111; Knowledge of the social world makes that world inherently unstable — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 115 (+14 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: This is Giddens’s core reflexive-modernity thesis in one dense passage: knowledge that transforms its object makes stable prediction impossible, which is the engine of the ‘runaway world.‘

Related

• Social knowledge alters its subject, unlike natural-science observation (similarity 0.88)
• Knowledge of the social world makes that world inherently unstable (similarity 0.87)
• Social science knowledge changes the social world it studies. (similarity 0.87)
• Modernity institutionalises doubt, making all knowledge claims inherently circular (similarity 0.87)
• Knowledge of social life does not produce greater control over fate (similarity 0.85)
• Truth-telling critical work produces new knowledges rather than circular confirmations of known positions. (similarity 0.84)
• Modernity is defined by wholesale reflexivity, not merely love of the new. (similarity 0.83)
• Modernity’s reflexivity subverts reason’s claim to certitude. (similarity 0.83)
• The feeling that systematic knowledge is impossible stems from uncontrollable modern events, not epistemology (similarity 0.81)
• Circular theory that merely reaffirms known political conclusions produces no new knowledge. (similarity 0.81)
• Modernity’s reflexivity makes its own rational grounds ultimately puzzling (similarity 0.80)
• Social science is more deeply implicated in modernity than natural science. (similarity 0.80)
• Modernity’s core is an irreducible enigma that cannot be overcome (similarity 0.79)
• Under modernity no knowledge is certain, in any science. (similarity 0.79)
• Modernity’s reflexivity rests on cultural commitment and power, not pure reason (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Deliberation mechanisms create new social realities that information alone cannot #corroborates (0.75) — , The Rod and the Child, 7390