The production of scientific knowledge is historically structured, the contribution of Norbert Elias to its explanation

Abstract

Building upon Norbert Elias’s work, and posing the
question of how to understand the production of
knowledge by humans, this thesis argues that
knowledge is the result of a historically structured
process. It argues it is therefore possible to
reconstruct the foundations of knowledge and
understand the logic of its development. The fact
that knowledge is structured does not imply
planning or the work of a supreme being. This
approach escapes the circular debate that has
confined the search for an explanation of
knowledge since the paradigmatic formulation of
Marx and Engels. That dialogue suggests that
either "material conditions" determine knowledge
or, conversely, that knowledge emerges
independently of those forces. Examining the
production of knowledge as a historically
structured process with its own logic of
development leads to the reevaluation of
knowledge as a concept and to an understanding of the history of acquired competencies that
enable the production of knowledge. The
acquisition of such competencies is therefore best
understood as a historically structured process.