Scientific knowledge operates as a pragmatic game governed by contract

Evidence

The argumentation required for a scientific statement to be accepted is thus subordinated to a “first” acceptance (which is in fact constantly renewed by virtue of the principle of recursion) of the rules defining the allowable means of argumentation. Two noteworthy properties of scientific knowledge result from this: the flexibility of its means, that is, the plurality of its languages; and its character as a pragmatic game—the acceptability of the “moves” (new propositions) made in it depends on a contract drawn between the partners. Another result is that there are two different kinds of “progress” in knowledge: one corresponds to a new move (a new argument) within the established rules; the other, to the invention of new rules, in other words, a change to a new game. — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 325

Categorization

• DEFINE: Lays out the two kinds of knowledge-progress: new moves within rules versus invention of new rules (paralogy vs. innovation).
• XREF: The ‘new move vs. new rules’ distinction maps cleanly onto the Kuhn normal-science vs. paradigm-shift distinction—worth connecting explicitly. — connects to: Narrative and scientific knowledge are incommensurable language games with no common criterion — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on…, 232; Contracts function as a form of norm-making between principals and agents — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 44; Science justifies methods by success while ignoring domains where intersubjective certainty fails (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Narrative and scientific knowledge are incommensurable language games with no common criterion #contradicts (0.95) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 232
• Narrative knowledge transmits the pragmatic rules that constitute the social bond #contradicts (0.85) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 200
• Knowledge production operates through socially grounded language #expands (0.85)
• Science must produce a legitimating philosophical discourse about its own rules #expands (0.80) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 87
• Science justifies methods by success while ignoring domains where intersubjective certainty fails #qualifies (0.75)
• Science’s trustworthiness rests on being intersubjective and collective #corroborates (0.75) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 748
• Disciplinary order blends artificial regulation with natural normative processes #expands (0.72) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 277
• Contracts function as a form of norm-making between principals and agents #expands (0.70) — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 44
• Advanced societies conflate knowledge with decision-competence and truth with power #qualifies (0.70) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 634
• Knowledge grows by selective rearrangement within a research consensus, not accumulation #corroborates (0.70) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 448
• Mercantilization replaces truth-testing with saleability and efficiency as the criteria for knowledge #complicates (0.70) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 373