Abstract

Three fields which might seem on the surface to have very little to do with each other - the sociologies of deviance, art, and science - have a deep underlying similarity, which surfaces as a chronic fight over definitions. In all three cases, a field of empirical research (a science) has replaced a field of philosophical discourse. When the work of empirical scientists and philosophical analysts intersect, there is often conflict. Aestheticians, for instance, want social scientists to "verify" their conclusions about beauty, to give them a "scientific" basis. But to do this would make it impossible to do good research. Something similar occurs in epistemology and ethics.