Ideology and science

• Science


  An open belief system that enables us to explain, predict and control the world
• Science


  • Based on the principle of falsificationism: scientists try to falsify existing theories by seeking evidence to disprove them
  • Scientific knowledge is not absolute truth, it can always be tested and potentially falsified
• CUDOS norms of science

  • Communism: Knowledge must be shared with the scientific community
  • Universalism: Scientific knowledge is judged by universal, objective criteria (testing)
  • Disinterestedness: Seeking knowledge for its own sake
  • Organised Scepticism: Every theory is open to criticism and testing
• Closed belief system


  Makes knowledge-claims that cannot be overturned, has 'get-out clauses' that prevent it from being disproved in the eyes of its believers
• Belief systems


  • Have three devices to sustain themselves in the face of contradictory evidence: circularity, subsidiary explanations and denying legitimacy to rival beliefs
• Scientific paradigm


  A set of shared assumptions that tells scientists what reality is like, defining problems, methods, equipment and even likely research findings
• Most of the time, scientists are engaged in normal science within the paradigm</b>
• Scientists who challenge the paradigm are likely to be ridiculed - except during periods of scientific revolution, when accumulated evidence undermines it
• Interpretivists


  Argue that scientific knowledge is socially constructed
• What scientists study in the laboratory is highly constructed and far removed from the "natural" world they are supposedly studying
• A scientific fact is simply a shared, socially constructed belief
• Marxism and feminism see science as serving the interests of dominant groups - the ruling class or men respectively
• Many scientific developments are driven by capitalism's need for knowledge to make profit
• Postmodernists reject science's claims to have 'the truth'
• Some argue that science has become technoscience, serving capitalist interests by producing commodities for profit
• Ideology


  A belief system, worldview or set of ideas that can include negative aspects like beliefs that are false or offer a partial/biased view of reality, conceal the interests of a group or legitimate (justify) inequalities, prevent change by misleading people about the situation, and are irrational and closed to criticism
• Marxist view of society

  • Capitalist ruling class
  • Working class forced to sell their labour
• The capitalist class exploit workers' labour to produce profit
• It is in the workers' interests to overthrow capitalism by revolution and create a classless communist society
• Ruling-class ideology or hegemony (ideological leadership of society) prevents class consciousness developing by legitimating capitalism
• Gramsci believes that ultimately the working class will overthrow capitalism, led by a party of class-conscious 'organic intellectuals'
• Nationalism


  An important political ideology that claims nations are real communities with unique characteristics, but is argued to be an 'imagined community'
• Marxists see nationalism as false consciousness that helps to prevent the overthrow of capitalism by dividing the international working class
• Functionalists see nationalism as a secular civil religion that integrates everyone into a single community, regardless of differences such as religion or class
• Gellner sees nationalism as a key feature of modernity, using education to impose a single standard, national culture on every member of society to enable communication and economic cooperation between strangers
• Gellner argues that elites also use nationalism as an ideology to motivate the population to modernise the state
• Feminists see gender inequality as legitimated by patriarchal ideology, where religious beliefs and practices often define women as inferior