What is distinctive about the nature of science, and social science in particular? How does scientific knowledge in Public Administration, for example, differ from other forms of human knowledge such as moral knowledge, religious beliefs, common sense, and so forth? Do the social and natural sciences differ fundamentally or merely in terms of particular tools and techniques? These are some of the questions that philosophers of science and social scientists ask continuously. These are recurring issues precisely because science and scientific knowledge have become an integral part of our everyday lives. The current age has been typified as the age of (scientific) information; modern-day society is indeed a society based on and driven by the production and utilisation of more and more knowledge. The applications of science – both the natural and social sciences – have had, and continue to have, a major impact on humankind. This impact is not confined to the technological uses of natural science knowledge, such as antibiotics, telecommunications, and electronics, but also to social science knowledge and its technologies – social policies, psychological tests, business scenarios, and so forth. In this reflection, I focus on a number of issues that are central to any reflection on the nature of scientific knowledge.

These are:

• ■ the epistemic imperative or the pursuit of truth in science;

• ■ possible obstacles or constraints on the attainment of truth or validity in science; and

• ■ reaffirming the necessity for ‘rational’ and ‘objective’ scientific inquiry.

On the nature of scientific knowledge: The epistemic imperative

On what grounds can we claim that science, and social science in particular, is a distinctive kind of knowledge? What is it in the term ‘scientific’ that signifies that scientific knowledge is different from other kinds of human knowledge? The answer lies, I believe, in what I will refer to as the ‘epistemic imperative’ of science. What distinguishes scientific inquiry from other kinds of human inquiry is a commitment to the pursuit of truth.