A little (up)SET THEORY: a philosophical and psychological pondering of a scientist on the state of our art.

Ever since Thomas Kuhn’s brilliant postulate that scientific progress is generated in the context of paradigms (commonly accepted notions), and that scientific revolutions manifest as paradigm shifts, we not only work along paradigms but are striving to consciously create them. Moreover, paradigms emerge not only within science but also about science, i.e., paradigms about how science should be done and how it should interact with society. In our field, the currently reigning paradigm (or more properly perhaps meta-paradigm or zeitgeist) is undoubtedly that of knowledge translation. Indeed, knowledge translation (KT) is a crucially important concept. And yet when a paradigm or rather its application becomes a self-imposed dogma or an overbearing cliché, it may counteract progress. When one receives criticism that one’s work is “cutting edge research in an enigmatic area in cell biology but the explanation how it is translational to clinic is weak,” one starts pondering the zeitgeist that compels referees to assess everything from the KT angle. And during such pondering over the current state of affairs, it suddenly dawned on me that the very concept of knowledge translation as it is applied today, is fundamentally—philosophically—flawed. In fact, it is a misnomer. What is being forced on us is not knowledge translation but science translation. And of course, knowledge and science are not the same. Far from it. Let me explain.