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The relationship between social science and social reality seems infinitely more complex than that between tool and object of analysis. In our time, the subterranean linkages of knowledge and experience have been vividly exposed: the crisis features of social reality have produced, or at least are accompanied by, an identity crisis in many academic disciplines—notably in social science. The manifestations of this malaise are familiar; they range from scholarly reassessments of specific research procedures to dramatic confrontations at professional meetings and in the context of professional organizations. Of late, such agonies have even surfaced in official pronouncements. In his recent presidential address to the political science fraternity, David Easton diagnosed professional unrest as a "new revolution" following closely on the heels of the behavioral or scientific renovation. As he pointed out, the preceding behavioral transformation had scarcely run its course before it was "overtaken by the increasing social and political crises of our time." Although not diametrically opposed to its predecessor, the new insurgency involved a profound challenge to professional orthodoxy: "The essence of the post-behavioral revolution is not hard to identify. It consists of a deep dissatisfaction with political research and teaching, especially of the kind that is striving to convert the study of politics into a more rigorously scientific discipline modelled on the methodology of the natural sciences." ¹

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-010-1999-6_5

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