bloor_1976 The Strong Programme in the Sociology of Knowledge教材.pdf

From David Bloor, The Strong Programme in the Sociology of Knowledge Chapter One Can the sociology of knowledge investigate and explain the very content and nature of scientific knowledge? Many sociologists believe that it cannot. They say that knowledge as such, as distinct from the circumstances surrounding its production, is beyond their grasp. They voluntarily limit the scope of their own enquiries. I shall argue that this is a betrayal of their disciplinary standpoint. All knowledge, whether it be in the empirical sciences or even in mathematics, should be treated, through and through, as material for investigation. Such limitations as do exist for the sociologist consist in handing over material to allied sciences like psychology or in depending on the researches of specialists in other disciplines. There are no limitations which lie in the absolute or transcendent character of scientific knowledge itself, or in the special nature of rationality, validity, truth or objectivity. It might be expected that the natural tendency of a discipline such as the sociology of knowledge would be to expand and generalise itself moving from studies of primitive cosmologies to that of our own culture. This is precisely the step that sociologists have been reluctant to take. Again, the sociology of knowledge might well have pressed more strongly into the area currently occupied by philosophers, who have been allowed to take upon themselves the task of defining the nature of knowledge. In fact sociologists have been only too eager to limit their concern with science to its institutional framework and external factors relating to its rate of growth or direction This leaves untouched the nature of the knowledge thus created (cf. Ben-David (1971), DeGre (1967), Merton (1964) and Stark (1958)). What is the cause for this hesitation and pessimism? Is it the enormous intellectual and practical difficulties which would attend such a programme? Certainly these mu