The Ghost of Wittgenstein Forms of Life, Scientific Method, and Cultural Critique
In developing an “internal” sociology of science, the sociology of scientific knowledge drew on Wittgenstein’s later philosophy to reinterpret traditional epistemological topics in sociological terms. By construing scientific reasoning as rule following within a collective, sociologists David Bloor...
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Published in | Philosophy of the social sciences Vol. 35; no. 2; pp. 139 - 174 |
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Main Author | |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Thousand Oaks, CA
SAGE Publications
01.06.2005
Sage SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | In developing an “internal” sociology of science, the sociology of scientific knowledge drew on Wittgenstein’s later philosophy to reinterpret traditional epistemological topics in sociological terms. By construing scientific reasoning as rule following within a collective, sociologists David Bloor and Harry Collins effectively blocked outside criticism of a scientific field, whether scientific, philosophical, or political. Ethnomethodologist Michael Lynch developed an alternative, Wittgensteinian reading that similarly blocked philosophical or political critique, while also disallowing analytical appeals to historical or institutional contexts. I criticize these Wittgensteinian sociologies and argue for the historical and contemporary significance of methodological criticisms of scientific practice that conjoin epistemological and political categories. I consider two such cases briefly: the Baconian criticism of Scholastic science in the early Royal Society and the criticism of AIDS drug testing protocols by activists. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 |
ISSN: | 0048-3931 1552-7441 |
DOI: | 10.1177/0048393105275280 |