Post-normal science and the rhetoric of inquiry: deconstructing normal science?

Post-normal science is an attempt to increase the problem-solving capacity of scientific work in a context of ‘soft' scientific inputs and ‘hard' policy decisions. The discourse on rhetoric in science can contribute to a better understanding of the problems and potentials of such an effort. The inclusion of ‘extended peer communities' is a case in point of the usefulness of rhetoric for an enterprise that wants to go beyond the normal science of puzzle-solving. The critical potential of rhetoric should be utilized. The distinction between internal and external rhetoric highlights the problematic relationship between scientific and political work, for example in the field of environmental issues.