SOC3061 Lecture 04

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SOC3061 - Lecture 04

• The Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (SSK)

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(No Transcript)
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David Bloor, Barry Barnes (The Edinburgh School)

• Knowledge as a natural phenomenon
• Knowledge collectively endorsed beliefs
• SSK focuses on the distribution of knowledge (how
  it is produced, transmitted, criticised, etc.)
• Against the view that rational beliefs are
  self-explanatory

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• A theory of knowledge that is
• Concrete (vs. formal, abstract)
• Naturalistic (vs. normative)
• Communitarian (vs. methodological
  individualism)
• Knowledge as a collective possession of a society
  or a group within a society. It is transmitted as
  part of their tradition and sustained by their
  collective authority. The creation of knowledge
  and its use is not understandable in abstract
  logical terms but rather in relation to the
  practices of specific actors in specific
  contexts.

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The Strong Programme (Bloor, 1976)

• 1. CAUSALITY causes of belief, social and
  non-social
• 2. IMPARTIALITY both true and false, rational
  and irrational beliefs require an explanation
• 3. SYMMETRY in the style of explanation of both
  true and false beliefs (same type of causes)
• 4. REFLEXIVITY the same kind of explanation is
  applicable to SSK itself.

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• Relativism all beliefs are equal with repect to
  the causes of their credibility. These causes are
  specific, local, contingent.
• Truth not an explanatory notion.
• True/false, rational/irrational context-bound
  evaluation, internal to a cultural system.
• Evidence means something only within a context
  of assumptions

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• Systems of classification
• Concept application
• The SSK is built upon a finitist approach to
  the theory of meaning every instance of concept
  application, in our everyday life as in science,
  is essentially contingent and context-bound.