The Reproduction of Objective Knowledge: Common Sense Reasoning in Medical Decision Making

Modern society is said to epitomize the production of objective knowledge. Considerable time is devoted to the production as well as the reproduction of objective knowledge in public and private sectors of nation-states. We seldom recognize that the reproductive process is not only very time consuming, but also gives knowledge a central role in the way modern societies sustain themselves. Knowing contributes to the creation, maintenance, and change in status systems and the acquisition and use of authority and power. Sociologists are only beginning to examine the socially organized processes which lead to the reproduction of objective knowledge.