Social Study of Science

The issue is in the form of a question: what is science? What makes it different from other knowledge systems? The author offers a social study of science (SSS), an approach that holds that science cannot be differentiated from non-science by decision rules: "Scientific knowledge does not arise from the application of pre-existing decision rules to particular hypotheses or generalizations." (17) The historical response to the initial question sees science organized into three broad phases--the amateur, the academic, and the professional. Since 1940, science has become more professional, but this does not say what science is.

What is classified as science may depend on the context in which the question is raised. Nominalism suggests that features proposed as characteristics of science derive from definitional practices of those making the suggestions. The essentialist approach sees science as constantly changing and as complex. The nominalist approach sees the quest as futile.

The sociology of knowledge has neglected science. Variations in knowledge under this approach are associated with differences in class background, religious affiliation, social context, and so on. The social study of science has had to contend with a separate tradition within sociology, the sociology of science, and has adopted the essentialist position. Woolgar says that the current conceptions of scie

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. Woolgar finds that these social scientists have failed to make critical distinctions between true and false knowledge and to see a necessity for their involvement in examining both. Sociologists show an inattention to the content of scientific knowledge and to emphasize. Recent work emphasizes the relativity of scientific truth, and Woolgar dubs this a sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK). He calls for a strong program in SSK. Here, sociologists see both truth and error as open to investigation. A strong program would have four requirements: 1) causality--to discern which conditions bring about beliefs or states of knowledge; 2) impartiality--do not select instances for study with respect to their perceived truth or falsity, rationality or irrationality, success or failure; 3) symmetry--use the same types of cause in explaining instances of scientific knowlege; and 4) reflexivity--the patterns of explanation of the sociology of scientific knowledge must be applicable to sociology itself. This program has engendered considerable controversy and argument, with the debate being over the best ways of finding out about the naure of science. Science is based on rules and logic and these are considered by Woolgar. He explod
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Approximate Word count = 1398
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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