This book constitutes the outcome of an international conference held at
the Otto-Mobes-Volkswirtschaftsschule, Graz-Stifting( Austria), from
June 16 to 22, 1974. The conference was initiated by a project group
working on determinants and controls of social science development at
the In- stitute for Advanced Studies and Scientific Research in Vienna
and or- ganized by the editors of this volume. It was held under the
auspices of the Austrian Ministry of Science and Research. The main
topics of the conference were those at the forefront of the 'state of
argumentation' (to borrow from one of our contributors) in philosophy
and sociology of science ever since the controversy between Thomas S.
Kuhn and Sir Karl R. Popper has sharpened our awareness for the
methodological and substantial presuppositions involved with questions
of growth and development in science. Let us give two examples of those
topics. The borderline between sociology of science and philo- sophy of
science has become more and more unclear; while the work of at least
some philosophers of science comes to have an empirical flavour,
sociologists of science are increasingly apt to include logical and
methodo- logical components of the research process as their objects of
examina- tion. Papers included in this volume testify to both
tendencies.