Science and Recognition

Abstract

One may think of human societies as consisting, amongst other things, of various kinds of institutions through which equally varying kinds of human goods are produced. The question then arises of how these institutions manage to do this — by means of what devices and mechanisms, relying on what sorts of motivations and social relationships — and with what degrees of success. There is no reason to assume that the answers to these questions of ‘institutional design’ will be the same in every case: it might well be that different kinds of institutions are more or less successful for different kinds of goods.

Previously unpublished. Earlier versions were given as seminar papers at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh, and at the Department of Philosophy, University of Lancaster: I am grateful to contributors to the ensuing discussions.