Point of departure is the social relativity of scientific knowledge: to what extent do social processes contribute to the development of knowledge?

• Point of departure is the social relativity of scientific knowledge: to what extent do social processes contribute to the development of knowledge?

• How social factors help to explain:

• the content of scientific knowledge;
• the organization (infrastructure) of science;
• the allocation of means.

• These studies are also called:

• Science Studies or Science of Science

Context of Discovery: scientist is situated in a historical and social context.

• Context of Discovery: scientist is situated in a historical and social context.

• Marx: ‘ideology’.

• Mannheim: ‘sociology of knowledge’.

• Frankfurter Schule – Habermas.

• After Kuhn: sociology of science in full bloom.

• Barnes and Bloor (Edinburgh): ‘The Strong Programme’.

The historical origins of theories.

• The historical origins of theories.

• The social and historical context.

• The subjective side of research.

• The social influence on theories.

• Historiography: sometimes called ‘Externalism’ or ‘Contextualism’.

Karl Marx (1845):

• Karl Marx (1845):

• false consciousness of the socio-economic dominant class, justifying the status quo

• i.e. the ideas of capitalism.

• Karl Mannheim (1936):

• sociology of knowledge:

• all knowledge is determined by social-economic factors.

Science and technology have become ideologies they have led to technical-instrumental rationality and objectivism;

• Science and technology have become ideologies they have led to technical-instrumental rationality and objectivism;

• s&t serve interests, are instruments for control;
• they legitimate the system of domination;
• instrumental rationality is ‘half’ rationality;
• this criticism of ideology constitutes its unmasking.

• The liberating force is communicative rationality, domination-free communication.

• The way to truth is not objectivism (correspondence) but consensus.

• This means a shift from the Marxian primacy of production to the primacy of communication.

• Social-psychological studies of science as a societal enterprise: e.g., infrastructure and laboratories; political influences; allocation of means.

• Social-psychological studies of knowledge-acquisition: social factors of scientific cognition; the social nature of ‘discoveries’; networking.

• Cognitive-psychological studies of scientific thinking and reasoning; creativity; the genius; discovery.

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