RSM 2008#2

In 1942 Robert K. Merton writes the essay “The Normative Structure of
Science”, where he argues that there are functional imperatives which must
be put to work in order to arrive at purely scientific results. These
institutional imperatives were summarised in the later to be famous
CUDOS model, consisting of “Communism/communalism”,
“Universalism”, “Disinterestedness”, and “Organised Scepticism”. They
were directed explicitly to the expulsion of Jewish scientists in Nazi
Germany, and could also be said to be in defence of the enlightenment
tradition and a liberal social order at the time it was written. However, in the
late 1960s Merton was heavily criticised from various directions. For
example, the notion of disinterestedness was said to be unrealistic since
social and individual interests were actually what made scientific facts to
appear at all. Also the neutrality of organised scepticism, which is similar to
Karl Popper’s falsification model, has been challenged by authors claiming
that scientific data are always theory-laden, and that we make choices as
social collectives in deciding in what direction to proceed in research.

Christopher Kullenberg & Jakob Lehne

Publicerad: 2008-06-08

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