Jokes aside! Actor-network theory on the legitimation of scientific knowledge

Abstract

The article touches upon the theoretical reconstruction of the notion «scientific fact» in sociology of B. Latour. To reach the assigned task the resources of J.-F. Lyotard’s philosophical perspective are applied. The author starts by presenting the critics of the mechanism of scientific fact production as a consequence of the removal of modalities from a statement, which is represented by the article of O. Amsterdamska. Further two questions are sequentially analyzed in the text. The first corresponds to the problem of the objective nature of scientific knowledge and the methodological distinction «realism/relativism». The second deals with the ontological nature of scientific activities. The author comes to the conclusion that in B. Latour’s sociology the objectivity is not denied, and science may be compared with politics only in a particular ontological sense.