Scientific Engagement in Social Transformations: Phronetic Social Science

the positivist social science usually has been under attack due to its theoretical approach and incapability to affect the social transformations. However, the opposite front, whose stress is on the applicability of the social science, is too criticized for its neglecting of the agilities of the social life such as the power-effect and the complex network of discursive activities which surely affect the semi-real social problems. In response to such weakness points, the Phronetic approach to social science believes that the researcher’s engagement in the process of problem-solving would help not only to overcome the non-applicability of the results, but also to consider the underneath theoretical foundations of the socio-political phenomena. Thus, phronetically studying, the researcher is not a mere observer anymore, but the engaged actor, for whom the human lived experience and its situatedness are the keys to his/her participation in policy-making. In other words, unlike the normal researchers, whose interest is to publish new books and papers, as a virtuous social agent, the phronetic researcher should follow the subject as an active player to fill the exchanging results in his/her own real-life, which leads to a better life. Explaining different aspects of the phronetic approach in social science, the present study attempts to present advantages of the approach in scientific exploring towards social transformation.