SCIENCE AS A BELIEF SYTEM
Protestant rationalisation that began with the Protestant reformation of the 16th centurySociologists argue that this has undermined religion, the way we see and think about the world.
THE IMPACT OF SCIENCEScience has had huge impact on society over past few centuries. Science and technology have revolutionalised economic productivity and raised our standard of living. This has led many people to believe that ‘faith in science’ can ‘deliver the goods’.
Science has created its own ‘manufactured risks’ that increasingly threaten the planet: pollution, global warming, drugs and internet crime.
Cognitive power- science enables to explain, predict and control the world in a way that non or pre scientific systems can not do.
These key features distinguishes from other belief systems or knowledge claims.
OPEN BELIED SYSTEM Sir Karl Popper (1959)
- science is an open belief system where every theory is open to criticism, scrutiny and testing by others
- Science is governed by principle of falsificationism
Science deliberately seek out to try and falsify existing theories
Theories can be discarded and search for a better explanation can begin
In science knowledge claims can live or die by evidence.
- Falsifying knowledge claim is what Popper says enables scientific explanation to grow
- Knowledge is cumulative builds on achievements of previous scientists to develop a greater understanding of the world around us
No theory is definitely true, can be possible to disprove science as its not sacred or the absolute truth so is opened to be questioned and perhaps to be false.
CUDOS NORMS Why has science grown so rapidly in the last few centuries?
Robert K Merton (1973) science can only thrive as a major social institution if it receives support from other institutions and values.
Merton:
First in England as a result of values and attitudes created by protestant reformation especially Puritanism (Calvanism)
Puritanism have ‘this worldly calling’ and industriousness and belief of study of nature led to appreciation of God’s work
Stressed social welfare and attracted to the fact that science could produce technological inventions to improve conditions of life
Science received support from economic and military institutions as the value of practical applications of science becomes obvious in areas such as mining, navigation and weaponry.
Merton like Popper sees science as an institution and an organised social activity, which needs an ‘ethos’ or set of norms and values that serve the goal of increasing scientific knowledge
Identifies 4 CUDOS:
Communism-
Universalism-
Disinterested-
Organise scepticisms-
CLOSED BELIEF SYSTEM Scientific knowledge is provisional, open to challenge and potentially disprovable.
Religion claims to have absolute truth, knowledge is sacred so cant be questioned, and does not change its claims.
Robis Horton- (1970)
- science as an open belief system
- Religion, magic and many other belief systems are closed
If fundamental beliefs are threatened, a closed belief system has number of devices that reinforce the system and prevent it from being disproved.
This varies e.g. witchcraft in Azande.
WITCHCRAFT AMONG THE AZANDEAzande do not believe in coincidence as when misfortune falls its due to in terms of witchcraft by e.g. by an jealous neighbour.
Injured party may make an accusation against the suspected witch and matter may be resolved by consulting Prince’s magic poison circle.
Prince’s diviner will administer a potion called ‘Benge’ at a chicken, whilst asking the benge whether the accused is the source of witchcraft, by telling it to kill the chicken and if it does then the sufferer can go public to tell the witchcraft to stop.
This is usually enough, as the psychic power is coming from the substance located at the witch’s intestine which is doing harm unintentionally and accused can proclaim their horror and surprise and apologise.
Evans Pritchard sees this belief system as performs social functions and it prevents grudges from festering. Since belief in witchcraft to be hereditary, kids have vested interest in keeping line clean.
This is important as social control mechanism ensuring conformity and cooperativeness.
Evans sees these beliefs as closed, as even if benge killed chicken without diviner addressing the potion, this shows that the oracle didn’t work however they believe it wasn’t a good benge.
The test does not disprove, but reinforced and claims they are the believers are trapped in their own ‘idiom of belief’, they accept it and can not change it.
SELF- SUSTAINING BELIEFSPolyani- belief system have three devices that sustain themselves in face of contradictory evidence:
Circularity
Subsidiary explanations
Denial of legitimacy to rivals
SCIENCE AS A CLOSED SYSTEM
Polyani argues even science is a closed belief system .In 1950 Immanuel Velikovsky’s theory of alternative explanation to the Earth’s origin was rejected and boycotted without even being read.
Thomas S Kuhn- argues mature science I.e. biology or physics is based on shared assumptions which he calls paradigm.
This tell them what reality is like and what will count as evidence etc.
Normal science is like ‘puzzle solving’ filling details of the paradigm’s. Those that do this successfully win Nobel prizes etc.
Scientific education and training is being socialised into faith into the paradigm and successful career depends on working with this.
Anyone who challenges the fundamental assumptions of paradigm, as Velikovsky, will usually be subjected to ridicule.
Rare period as Kuhn describes as ‘scientific revolution’ where the faith in paradigm has been undermined by accumulation of anomalies- results that paradigm can’t account for, only then do scientists become open to radically new ideas.
SOCIOLOGY OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE Interpretivists developed Kuhn’s ideas say that scientific knowledge is socially constructed- those things that scientists take to be true and real are a product of shared theories or paradigms that tell them what they should expect to see and of particular instruments they use.
Kuhin argues inventions of new instruments that help scientist make observation construct or fabricate new facts.
What scientists study in labs is highly ‘constructed’ and highly removed from real life e.g. animals are specially reared in labs.
LITTLE GREEN MEN Ethno methodologist Steve Woolgar (1998)- scientists are involved in trying to make sense of interpreting the world as everyone else.
When confronted with evidence from experiment they need to decide what it means, and do so by devising and applying theories or explanations. They also need to persuade others to accept their interpretation.
Woolgar notes, a scientific fact is simply a social construction or belief system that scientists are able to persuade their colleagues to share- not necessarily a real thing ’out there’.
MARXISM, FEMINISM AND POSTMODERNISM They see science as serving the dominant groups. Ruling class for Marxists and men for feminists. E.g. theoretical work on ballistics was done to develop new weapons.
Biological ideas have been used to both justify male domination and colonial expansion. Science can be seen as a form of ideology.
Postmodernists say science is a number of meta narratives that claim to posses the truth and how the world works as a means of progress to a better society. Science is just one more ‘discourse’ way of thinking that is used to dominate people.
Some postmodernist argue that science has become ‘techno science’, simply serving capitalist interest by producing commodities for profit.
- belief system reject alternative world views by refusing them legitimacy to their basic assumption- e.g. if oracle fails, it might be due to benge being used incorrectly - each idea in system is explained in terms of another idea within a system and so onall knowledge offered is open to question and criticism committed to discovering knowledge for its sake and publish their findings to prevent fraud Scientific knowledge is judged and defined objectively not by race etcscientific knowledge must be shared
