A significant part of the existing literature in efficiency and creativity of humanities and social sciences in Iran has explained the weakness of humanities by referring to institutional, political, ideological factors; However, less attention has been paid to a deeper level of the problem, that is, the epistemological logics governing the production of knowledge in these contexts. This article tries to reread the situation of Iranian humanities from the perspective of three models of rational knowledge (mystical, analogical, and experimental). The research method is thematic and interpretative analysis of texts and based on the sociology and anthropology of social sciences, it examines the relationship between culture, social rationality and knowledge production. In this situation, experience and observation are often placed in a secondary and marginalized position, and rather than being the source of generating new concepts, they become a tool for confirming philosophical, ideological or belief assumptions. The article concludes that the development of social sciences in Iran requires more than the quantitative expansion of scientific institutions, it requires the strengthening of a serious link with the empirical base and the creation of cultural and institutional conditions necessary for a creative link between theory and experience.