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In this short, dense essay, Jean Cavaillès evaluates philosophical efforts to determine the origin - logical or ontological - of scientific thought, arguing that, rather than seeking to found science in original intentional acts, a priori meanings, or foundational logical relations, any adequate theory must involve a history of the concept. Cavaillès insists on a historical epistemology that is conceptual rather than phenomenological, and a logic that is dialectical rather than transcendental. His famous call (cited by Foucault) to abandon "a philosophy of consciousness" for "a philosophy of the concept" was crucial in displacing the focus of philosophical enquiry from aprioristic foundations toward structural historical shifts in the conceptual fabric. This new translation of Cavaillès's final work, written in 1942 during his imprisonment for Resistance activities, presents an opportunity to reencounter an original and lucid thinker. Cavaillès's subtle adjudication between positivistic claims that science has no need of philosophy, and philosophers' obstinate disregard for actual scientific events, speaks to a dilemma that remains pertinent for us today. His affirmation of the authority of scientific thinking combined with his commitment to conceptual creation yields a radical defense of the freedom of thought and the possibility of the new. --

Inspired by hermeneutics tradition, qualitative as well as quantitative social research has realized that the subject matter of the social sciences is always interpreted by the actors studied. Social studies of science have also demonstrated that science itself depends on preinterpreted knowledge. In recent decades, it therefore became increasingly clear that any scientific methodology needs to account for the positionality of researchers and their methodology. In addition to the abstract armchair methodologies of scientific "reasoning," reflexive methodology has been proposed as an approach to empirical study of more than just the procedures and methods of the very researchers who are doing research, such as the videography of videography. It is one goal of this paper to stress that reflexive methodology is not a self-contained method describing and analyzing the practical methodology of one's action. To the degree that the analysis of the "!real live"! method is intended to guide research, reflexive methodology has also normative implications. As these normative implications have been referred to by the label theory of science, the second goal of this presentation is to delineate the idea of empirical theory of science.