Science As An Closed System

Question 1

(Polyani) What 3 devices sustain ALL belief systems?

Answer 1

Circulatory- everything explained in terms of ideas in the system

Subsidary explanations

Denial of legitimacy to rivals

Question 2

(Kuhn) Why is science a closed system?

Answer 2

It is based on a paradigm that scientists are socialised into. Any scientist who challenges the paradigm gets ridiculed out of the profession like Velikovsky

Question 3

Kuhn- only exception to science being a closed system

Answer 3

Scientific revolutions where there is a lack of faith into the paradigm due to an accumulation of anomalies

Question 4

Interpretivist sociologists. Example?

Answer 4

ALL knowledge is socially constructed. Rather than being objective truth, its created by social groups using available tools

Knorr-Cetina: invention of telescopes permits scientists to make new observations and create new facts

Question 5

Conflict theories

Answer 5

Marxists and feminists see scientific knowledge as serving the interests of dominant groups.e.g.

many advancements are driven by the need of capitalism for certain knowledge EXAMPLE: biological ideas used to justify colonialism