A purpose of the sociology of science.

By the way I just realized that the affaire Sokal already has more than 10 years (the articles were published in 1996), step to me to ask why sociologists we tend, when we look at the science, to fall into relativism? (on the idea that or all the systems have equal validity, equal or base or whatever).

Because it is clear that it does not require relativism to do sociology of science (The old sociology of science -old Merton, he said many things without the need of messing in these affairs). If you are required if one wants to, as Bloor, that sociology can and should go in the sancta sanctorum , and to determine the validity of the knowledge.

Among the innumerable reasons I’m going to use a sociology of knowledge: That argument overcomes the sense of inferiority of our discipline: Oh, it’s from social (from sociology) that can explain the science. And we will show that their ideas are equivalent to any other. In other words, they are not better than us.

Or to put it another way, are as much scientists as you are. Our criteria and our customs are equivalent. It makes No sense to say that they are more rigorous than us.

The consequence is to make more plausible the fact that science is nothing special. Because if the natural sciences are as rigorous as the sociology, then it is clear that they are not very rigorous, nor of truth involve a good knowledge of the world (because every sociologist with some critical sense knows that sociology is not, in fact and in actuality, a good knowledge of the world).

So to speak, while the old positivists thought that sociology could be a science like any other, and that meant ‘go up’ to the level of the other sciences; the new sociology of science tells us that sociology is a science like any other, because the other sciences are not better than us.

In other words, we think that the natural sciences do not represent a valid way of approaching the world not because of our daring intellectual. But we think that, that way, we can leave it in our mediocre level.

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