belief systems

• belief systems & the main 3 belief systems

  -a belief system is a framework of ideas

  -main 3: ideology, religion and science
• science as an open system

  -Popper: falsification - always trying to prove ideas wrong.

  -views on science change because of evidence.

  Example: Darwin proving creationism wrong and evolution right.

  -Merton: protestant religions influenced people to improve their life in this world, they invested in science to improve it. Science guided living and changed.

  -Cudos norms: communism - scientific knowledge is not private, example: insulin; universalism - ideas can be falsified anywhere in the world; disinterestedness - publish material to show what they found, not to advance their career; organised scepticism: no claims are sacred, always disprove ideas.
• science as a closed system

  -Kuhn: paradigms. Science should only have one paradigm, not open to this being challenged. Science only accepts one way of thinking.

  -feminists & marxists: women were not allowed in science; the proletariat did not have access.

  -Polanyi: all belief systems are self-sustaining, they cannot be proven wrong. Circularity: ideas are explained in terms of another idea so they cannot be challenged; subsidary explanations: if something fails it is because of another factor e.g., not doing an experiment right; denial of legitimacy: reject alternative explanations - no space for anything to co-exist.

  -Woolgar: scientific knowledge = social construct. Facts = products of shared theories. Example: researchers found 'pulsars' in space, they were originally called 'little green men' but this was changed so it would be accepted.
• Dr Velivosky

  -argued that the origins of the world differ from what people think

  -challenged different areas of science

  -he was ostracised from the scientific community

  -shows it is closed, they did not investigate his ideas
• religion as a closed system

  -Horton: religion is a closed system, all religions have 'get out clauses' that reinforce the system. Religion is like magic. Example: questioning belief in God for having a hard time, God then gives you harder times.

  -Evans-Pritchard: examined Azande tribe & how their beliefs in witchcraft are closed. The tribe believe that nothing happens by chance. Use oracles to see who caused issues, poison a chicken, if the chicken dies it is because of witchcraft. The person can then ask witchcraft to stop. Tribe always have 'get out clauses'. Do not accept any other ideas.

  -cannot question; cannot prove wrong.