NORMATIVE AND DESCRIPTIVE IN THE STUDY OF RELIGION

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Abstract

The tension between normative and descriptive approaches was particularly evident in the proposals that the Society undertook a systematic programme of research whose purpose it would be to formulate a normative concept of man. This norm could then be offered for guidance to those engaged in radical research particularly in the bio-medical field where genetic engineering is a present fact. The normative concept of man would set moral limits to what is acceptable both in the directions of scientific research and in the social application of technologies thus developed.