Abstract: The integrity of the scientific process depends on preserving the institutional framework that is critical for maintaining and reproducing the methods and attitudes required for systematic inquiry. A major aim of science education for custodians of democracy should be the development of the habits and skills required to protect the institutional production, application, and dissemination of reliable knowledge. Custodians need to understand how science is informed by values at virtually every stage, from the problem selected for study to the way a problem is defined and supported, to the methods chosen to test a scientific claim, to the logic that moves the argument from premise to conclusion, and from conclusion to recommendations for policy and action. This requirement is important for citizens in general and for citizens who work in scientific fields in particular.

Modern science is systematic inquiry, not systematic knowledge. It cannot be defined by its method or by its metaphysics, since these are amended as inquiry progresses. The norms of science are therefore the business of science and represent empirical discoveries. Peirce’s conception of science is nontechnical and for that reason difficult: he identified it by its ’spirit’, a restless quest for concrete discovery fruitful of further discovery. Theory, then, is no longer the end of inquiry, a resting place, but is, instead, a means to further discovery. Whereas philosophical systems were meant to be coherent and comprehensive, a theory that grounds research cannot be complete and any incoherence in it is a stimulus, not a fatal flaw. But the pursuit of concrete knowledge requires specialization and an evolving network of specialists. Peirce reversed the usual deprecation of specialization: its aim is growth of a knowledge that transcends any individual consciousness.