Science as an Open Belief System
- Popper: Science is based on the principle of falsification (seeking evidence to disprove a theory)
- Communism: Knowledge must be shared with the scientific community
- Universalism: Scientific knowledge is judged by universal, objective criteria
- Disinterestedness: Seeking knowledge for its own sake
- Organised Scepticism: Every theory is open to criticism & testing
Science as a Closed Belief System
- Science is based on paradigms - set of shared assumptions
- Scientists who challenge the paradigm are likely to be ridiculed
The Sociology of Scientific Knowledge
- Functionalists: scientific knowledge is socially constructed
- Lab experiments are highly constructed & far removed from the natural world they are supposedly studying
- A scientific fact is simply a shared, socially constructed belief
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