Following the Second Legacy of Aristotle The Scholar-Practitioner as an Epistemic Technician

In our Western scientific tradition, Aristotle’s first legacy has conventionally been invoked to justify the separation of theory and practice. In contrast, we draw attention to a second, less recognized legacy of Aristotle, one where he argues for the integration of universals (theory), with the particulars (experience and practice) of a situation as the basis of true knowledge and understanding. Scholar-practitioners, we suggest, are the contemporary carriers of the Aristotelian second vision, who skillfully integrate theory, experience, and practice to create actionable scientific knowledge, or knowledge that advances the causes of both the organization and the larger scientific discourse. Our study of 11 scholar-practitioners and their efforts in organizational projects to generate actionable scientific knowledge suggests that they employ six strategies for interrelating theory and practice: framing, influencing and legitimizing, sensemaking, demonstrating, turns, and scaffolding. We discuss implications from our findings for the design of collaborative management systems that strive to produce knowledge outcomes with such dual relevance.