Theoretical Issues in Psychology

Philosophy of science
and
Philosophy of Mind
space for cover for
Psychologists

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 Chapter 5
Sociology and psychology of science

Science as a human activity

Ideology and critical theory
Social history of science
Social nature of knowledge and the strong programme
Sociology of scientific practice
The science wars
Psychology of science
The social and psychological nature of knowledge

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 Sociology of science

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

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 Sociology of science
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.

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 Context of discovery

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.

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Ideology: historical background
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.

Frankfurter Schule JrgenHabermas (1968) :

science & technology as ideology:
critique on existing science & technology.
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 Science and Technology as Ideology
Jrgen Habermas

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. B&LdeJ 7
 The Strong Programme
(Bloor and Barnes)
The 4 tenets for the sociology of knowledge (1976)

1. Causality: be aware that all sciences are

caused by social (economic, political, cultural,
psychological) factors.
2. Keep up impartiality with respect to truth and
falsity, rationality or irrationality, succes or failure.
3. Symmetricality (equivalence): invoke the
same causes for success and for error in science.
4. Reflexivity: these patterns of explanation
should also be applicable to sociology itself.

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 Sociology of science

from macro-research:
broad social influences;
classical Sociology of Sc.
(Merton)

to micro-research:
anthropological research
in the scientific laboratory
(Latour and Woolgar)
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 The constructivist perspective

Beliefs are created and adopted in a groups thinking

processs.
Facts are socially constructed, are products of negotiation.

The laboratory as a social organisation.

Scientists operate in a preconstructed artifactual reality.

Social processes as constitutive of the production and
acceptance of knowledge claims.
Therefore:
anthropological method: sharing the daily life of scientists;
Latour & Woolgar(1979): Laboratory Life.
Knorr-Cetina (1983).
discourse analysis: systematic investigation of the social
production of scientific discourse;
Mulkay et al. (1983). B&LdeJ 10
 Represention and object: a fallacy
Steve Woolgar (1988)

A traditional fallacy: distinction between representation

and object, between knowledge and facts.
On the contrary, there is an intimate interdependence
between them.
The representation precedes the represented object.
There is no object out there and beyond us qua observers,
and separate from our practice.

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 Scientific practice
a.o. Pickering, Hacking

Shift from knowing to practice, from representation to

intervention (Hacking).
Data are not so much theory-laden, but are material artifacts.
The practical scientist tunes his theory to data, to the
instruments, to the interpretations.
Theory, data, instruments, interpretations are interdependent.
Once again, it means that objectivity is constructed.
Hacking: realism not about theories, but about practice.

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 Science Wars
Science Wars: scientists contra social-constructionists
Deconstruction, unmasking of authoritative and classical
texts, routine in american arts faculties (lit crit), French
philosophy.
Gross and Levitt, Higher Superstition (1994): deconstruc-
tionists dislike science.
Sokal Hoax (practical joke)
Nonsense physics accepted as serious deconstruction by
journal.
Ridicules social constructionism.
(A. Sokal, Transgressing the boundaries. Toward a transformative
hermeneutics of quantum gravity, Social Text, 1996)
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 Psychology of science

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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