According to Hurme's (1997) production metaphor, competition among researchers plays a central role in scientific enterprise. I argue that competition cannot be excluded from scientific practice and should actually be considered as a significant motivational force. My main thesis, however, is that the production metaphor is blind to the scientific process as a cooperative enterprise guided by a specific set of values. Even in an era in which scientists are under increasing pressure to produce, the original dialogical spirit embodied by the figure of Socrates is at the heart of science as a moral enterprise.
Bakhtin, M.
(1973). Problems of Dostoevsky's poetics (R.W. Rotsel, Trans.). New York: Ardis. (Original work published 1929 under the title Problemy tvorchestva Dostoevskogo [Problems of Dostoevsky's Art].)
2.
Hermans, H.J.M.
, & Kempen, H.J.G. (1993). The dialogical self: Meaning as movement. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
3.
Hurme, H.
(1997). Psychological concepts, their producers and consumers. Culture & Psychology, 3(2), 115-136.
