The Edinburgh connection I

the strong programme and the social causes of scientific belief

pp. 205-260

in: Robert Nola, Rescuing reason, Berlin, Springer, 2003

Abstract

The formulations of the main theses of the sociology of knowledge (SK) are somewhat crude in Marx and Mannheim, even though their applications are less so. Since the 1970s much more has been done to state the main theses of SK through its application to the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK). A number of people associated with the University of Edinburgh Science Studies Unit, such as David Bloor, Barry Barnes, Michael Mulkay, Harry Collins and David Edge amongst others, have done much to shape what a thoroughgoing SK and SSK would be like, and to explore, more fully than others before, what are the implications of a sociological approach to scientific belief. In particular David Bloor's formulation of the Strong Programme for the sociology of scientific knowledge (SP) has provided the main themes that research projects into scientific belief have come to address. A number of variations on these themes have been played by investigators who acknowledge varying degrees of kinship to, or distance from, SP.