Topic 7: ideology and science

• Popper's view of science

  science is an 'open system' open to challenging and falsification, making scientific knowledge cumulative (building on previous scientists)
• Merton's CUDOS norms


  4 norms that serve the interest of increasing scientific knowledge:

  Communism (share knowledge)

  Universalism (judged by a universal, objective criteria)

  Disinterestedness (publish findings to prevent fraud)

  Organised Scepticism (open to questioning)
• Horton


  Views science as an open belief system but religion and other beliefs as closed as knowledge cannot be overturned or disproven.
• Evans-Pritchard's study of witchcraft among the Azande people


  -Do not believe in coincidence or chance but blames bad events on someone practicing witchcraft

  - They ask a potion to kill a chicken if the accused person was practising and if it dies the answer is yes.

  - argues the belief system performs social functions: encourages consideration and social conscensus.

  - resistant to challenges because challenges can be overcome using other beliefs in the system
• Polanyi's devices to sustain belief against challenges

  - circularity ( each idea explained by another aspect of the system)

  - subsidiary explanations ( explains anomalies as misuse of the rituals)

  - denial of legitimacy to rivals ( rejects the basic assumptions of alternative worldviews)
• Example of science as a closed system

  Dr Velikovsky - proposed a new theory on the origins of the earth which challenged fundamental scientific beliefs. He was rejected without other scientists even reading his book.
• Kuhn's view of science as a closed system

  Argues science is based on paradigms (shared assumptions and methods) which act as outlines that scientists fill in. Those who challenge the paradigm are ridiculed
• Interpretivist view of science


  All knowledge is socially constructed as a product of paradigms that tell scientists what results to expect and what equipment to use.
• Example of science as a social construct

  Little Green Men - discovery of 'pulsars' initially annotated the patterns from the telescope as 'Little Green Men' but this was unacceptable in the scientific community so changed it to represent a type of star.
• Postmodernist view of science

  Lyotard - science is a meta-narrative like religion that falsely claims to hold the one truth.

  Some argue that science has become a technoscience serving capitalist interests by producing commodities for profit.
• Ideology


  A worldview/ belief system that holds a set of ideas and values, often including negative aspects in sociology such as justifying inequality and is closed to criticism
• Marxism - the ruling class ideology


  to prevent uprising against capitalism, the ruling class control the production of ideas through education, media and religion creating a RC ideology justifying the social order, creating a false consciousness
• Marxism - Gramsci's hegemony


  hegemony = RC ideological domination.

  In order to develop consciousness, WC need organic intellectuals who show them their own exploitation
• Abercrombie et al


  challenge the power of ideology and instead argues that economic factors such as fear of unemployment stop workers from rebelling
• Anderson's view of nationalism

  'imagined community' that binds strangers together
• Marxism and nationalism


  Prevents the overthrow of capitalism by dividing the international WC and making them fight for their nation against other WC
• Functionalism and nationalism


  nationalism = secular civil religion

  unites people regardless of class or religion

  collective rituals (national anthem) and symbols (flags) = social solidarity
• Modernity and nationalism


  Gellner - industrialisation creates the ideology of nationalism and make citizens equal in law and using mass education curriculums to impose a single standard and create economic cooperation.

  Elites use it to motive WC to endure hardship simply as part of state modernising.
• Mannheim's distinction between types of worldviews

  -Ideological thought (justifies the status quo, reflecting the interest if privileged groups)

  -Utopian thought (justifies social change, reflecting the interest of underprivileged groups)

  This division acts as a source of conflict
• Mannheim's free-floating intelligentsia


  Solution for conflict in worldviews is to detach from the social groups they represent and stand above the conflict, creating a total worldview.
• Feminism and ideology


  Ideologies to justify gender differences

  Marks - 19th century doctors justified exclusion from education by saying it would make them 'unfeminine'

  Religious purification rituals such as 'churching' after a women gives birth.

  However, some oppose patriarchy e.g. Hindu goddesses often shown as creators of the universe