["The hard core". Science between politics and philosophy by Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker and in the finalization...

In the Starnberg Max-Planck Institute one of the working groups was concerned with science as the formative condition--or "hard core"--of societal modernity, and with science as potential resource for solving social problems and addressing future goals. More precisely, the group intended to differentiate between phases in which scientific disciplines predominantly care for their own paradigmatic completion and those allowing their theoretical potential resonate with external needs. The conceptual model was coined "finalization in science". It soon provoked a heated controversy on the dangers of social control of science. The paper analyses Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker's views on the relation between philosophy and policy of science including his interpretation of Thomas Kuhn and reconstructs the impact of his ideas on the finalization model. It finally reflects on the relationship between science development and change of consciousness in the context of scientific responsibility for (the use of) research outcomes.