The strong programme or strong sociology is a variety of the

sociology of scientific knowledge The sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) is the study of science as a social activity, especially dealing with "the social conditions and effects of science, and with the social structures and processes of scientific activity." The sociolo ...

(SSK) particularly associated with

David Bloor David Bloor (; born 1942) is a British sociologist. He is a professor in, and a former director of, the Science Studies Unit at the University of Edinburgh. He is a key figure in the Edinburgh school and played a major role in the development ...

, Barry Barnes,

Harry Collins Harry Collins, (born 13 June 1943), is a British sociologist of science at the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, Wales. In 2012 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. Career While at the University of Bath Professor C ...

, Donald A. MacKenzie, and John Henry. The strong programme's influence on

science and technology studies Science and technology studies (STS) is an interdisciplinary field that examines the creation, development, and consequences of science and technology in their historical, cultural, and social contexts. History Like most interdisciplinary fie ...

is credited as being unparalleled (

Latour Latour may refer to: People * LaTour, American musician Surname * House of Baillet ** Alfred de Baillet Latour (1901–1980), ** Henri de Baillet-Latour (1876–1942), Belgian aristocrat and the third president of the International Olympic Comm ...

1999). The largely

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

-based school of thought has illustrated how the existence of a

scientific community The scientific community is a diverse network of interacting scientists. It includes many " sub-communities" working on particular scientific fields, and within particular institutions; interdisciplinary and cross-institutional activities are als ...

, bound together by allegiance to a shared paradigm, is a prerequisite for normal scientific activity. The strong programme is a reaction against "weak" sociologies of science, which restricted the application of sociology to "failed" or "false" theories, such as

phrenology Phrenology () is a pseudoscience which involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits.Wihe, J. V. (2002). "Science and Pseudoscience: A Primer in Critical Thinking." In ''Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience'', pp. 195–203. C ...

. Failed theories would be explained by citing the researchers' biases, such as covert political or economic interests. Sociology would be only marginally relevant to successful theories, which succeeded because they had revealed a fact of nature. The strong programme proposed that both "true" and "false" scientific theories should be treated the same way. Both are caused by social factors or conditions, such as cultural context and self-interest. All human knowledge, as something that exists in the human cognition, must contain some social components in its formation process.

Characteristics

As formulated by David Bloor, the strong programme has four indispensable components: #''Causality'': it examines the conditions (psychological, social, and cultural) that bring about claims to a certain kind of knowledge. #''Impartiality'': it examines successful as well as unsuccessful knowledge claims. #''Symmetry'': the same types of explanations are used for successful and unsuccessful knowledge claims alike. #''Reflexivity'': it must be applicable to sociology itself.

History

Because the strong programme originated at the 'Science Studies Unit,'

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, it is sometimes termed the Edinburgh School. However, there is also a Bath School associated with

that makes similar proposals. In contrast to the Edinburgh School, which emphasizes historical approaches, the Bath School emphasizes microsocial studies of laboratories and experiments. The Bath school, however, does depart from the strong programme on some fundamental issues. In the

social construction of technology Social construction of technology (SCOT) is a theory within the field of science and technology studies. Advocates of SCOT—that is, social constructivists—argue that technology does not determine human action, but that rather, human action ...

(SCOT) approach developed by Collins' student

Trevor Pinch Trevor J. Pinch (1 January 1952 – 16 December 2021) was a British sociologist, part-time musician and chair of the Science and Technology Studies department at Cornell University. In 2018, he won the J.D. Bernal Prize from the Society for ...

, as well as by the Dutch sociologist

Wiebe Bijker Wiebe E. Bijker (born 19 March 1951, Delft) is a Dutch professor Emeritus, former chair of the Department of Social Science and Technology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Early life Bijker's father was an engineer involved in imp ...

, the strong programme was extended to technology. There are SSK-influenced scholars working in

programs throughout the world.

Criticism

In order to study scientific knowledge from a sociological point of view, the strong programme has adhered to a form of radical

relativism Relativism is a family of philosophical views which deny claims to objectivity within a particular domain and assert that valuations in that domain are relative to the perspective of an observer or the context in which they are assessed. There ...

. In other words, it argues that – in the social study of institutionalised beliefs about "truth" – it would be unwise to use "truth" as an explanatory resource. To do so would (according to the relativist view) include the answer as part of the question (Barnes 1992), and propound a " whiggish" approach towards the study of history – a narrative of human history as an inevitable march towards truth and enlightenment.

Alan Sokal Alan David Sokal (; born January 24, 1955) is an American professor of mathematics at University College London and professor emeritus of physics at New York University. He works in statistical mechanics and combinatorics. He is a critic of pos ...

has criticised radical relativism as part of the

science wars The science wars were a series of scholarly and public discussions in the 1990s over the social place of science in making authoritative claims about the world. HighBeam Encyclopedia defines the science wars as the discussions about the "way the s ...

, on the basis that such an understanding will lead inevitably towards

solipsism Solipsism (; ) is the philosophical idea that only one's mind is sure to exist. As an epistemological position, solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure; the external world and other minds cannot be known and ...

and postmodernism. Markus Seidel attacks the main arguments –

underdetermination In the philosophy of science, underdetermination or the underdetermination of theory by data (sometimes abbreviated UTD) is the idea that evidence available to us at a given time may be insufficient to determine what beliefs we should hold in re ...

and norm-circularity – provided by Strong Programme proponents for their relativism.Markus Seidel ''Epistemic Relativism. A Constructive Critique'', 2014, Palgrave Macmillan Strong programme scholars insist that their approach has been misunderstood by such a criticism and that its adherence to radical relativism is strictly methodological.

Notes

Bibliography

* Barnes, B. (1977). ''Interests and the Growth of Knowledge''. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. * Barnes, B. (1982). ''T. S. Kuhn and Social Science''. London: Macmillan. * Barnes, B. (1985). ''About Science''. Oxford: Blackwell. * Barnes, B. (1987). 'Concept Application as Social Activity', Critica 19: 19–44. * Barnes, B. (1992). "Realism, relativism and finitism". Pp. 131–147 in ''Cognitive Relativism and Social Science'', eds. D. Raven, L. van Vucht Tijssen, and J. de Wolf. * Barnes, B., D. Bloor, and J. Henry. (1996), ''Scientific Knowledge: A Sociological Analysis''. University of Chicago Press. n introduction and summary of strong sociology* Bijker, Wiebe E., et al. ''The social construction of technological systems: New directions in the sociology and history of technology'' (MIT press, 2012) * Bloor, D. (1991

976 Year 976 ( CMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * January 10 – Emperor John I Tzimiskes dies at Constantinople, after re ...

, ''Knowledge and Social Imagery'', 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. utlines the strong programme* Bloor, D. (1997). ''Wittgenstein, Rules and Institutions''. London: Routledge. * Bloor, D. (1999). "Anti-Latour," ''Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science Part A'' 20#1 pp: 81–112. * Collins, Harry, and Trevor Pinch. ''The Golem at large: What you should know about technology'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)
Latour, B. (1999). "For David Bloor and Beyond ... a reply to David Bloor's 'Anti-Latour',"
''Studies in History & Philosophy of Science Part A'' 30(1): 113–129.

External links