Ideology and Science

Question 1

What type of power does Science as a belief system offer? What is this?

Answer 1

Cognitive Power, the ability to predict, explain and control the world

Question 2

What did Popper say about science as a belief system? What is it open to? What main principle is it governed by?

Answer 2

It’s an open system of belief. It’s open to scrutiny, criticism and testing by others.

It’s governed by the principle of falsification

Question 3

What does Popper say about Religion & Magic?

Answer 3

They’re a closed belief system, there are scapegoats in place that stop the doctrine from being questioned

Question 4

What is the name of the witchcraft tribe? Who studied them?

Answer 4

1-The Azande People

2- Evans-Pritchard

Question 5

What are the three devices belief systems use to sustain themselves when criticised according to Polanyi (1958)

Answer 5

1- Circularity
2- Subsidiary explanations
3- Denial of legitimacy to rivals

Question 6

What does Knorr-Cetina argue about scientific knowledge?

Answer 6

That scientific facts are socially constructed and that labs are far from the natural world

Question 7

Who theorised ideology and utopia?

Answer 7

Mannheim

Question 8

According the Mannheim, what’s the difference between ideological thought and utopian thought?

Answer 8

Ideological thought is conservative, Utopian thought encourages change

Question 9

What does Marks argue about Patriarchal society legitimising gender inequality? What evidence does she present in support of this?

Answer 9

Science has excluded women from education, she used the idea that male scientists expressed that educating females would disqualify them from their true vocation of being house-wifey