Abstract
The idea of a social determination of scientific activity - whether it relates to the formation of the hypotheses or theories of which this activity consists, and/or to the credit given to them within the scientific field - is often held to be incompatible with the idea that this activity could lead to progress in objective knowledge of the facts, entities or events on which these hypotheses are based. First, I'd like to show how Pierre Bourdieu's theory of the scientific field can account for the idea of such progress. I will then pose the following question: does this theory make it possible to conceive of the possibility of such progress in philosophy, if philosophy is conceived in the Wittgensteinian way that Jacques Bouveresse conceives it?
