Ideology And Science

Question 1

Who believes that science is governed by the principle of falsificationism?

Answer 1

Karl Popper

Question 2

What is falsificationism?

Answer 2

Where scientists set out to try and falsify existing theories, deliberately seeking evidence that would disprove them

Question 3

In Poppers view, what enables scientific understanding of the world to grow?

Answer 3

Discarding falsified knowledge claims

Question 4

According to Popper, what is scientific knowledge?

Answer 4

It is cumulative - it builds on the achievements of previous scientists to develop a greater and greater understanding of the world around us

Question 5

According to functionalist Robert Merton, what must science receive support from if it is to thrive as a major social institution?

Answer 5

Other institutions and values

Question 6

According to Merton, what created the values and attitudes that allowed science to thrive?

Answer 6

The Protestant Reformation, especially Puritanism (a form of Calvinism)

Question 7

According to Karl Popper, what sort of belief system is science?

Answer 7

An open belief system where every scientists theories are open to scrutiny, criticism and testing by others

Question 8

How did the Puritans enable science to thrive?

Answer 8

Their industriousness, and their belief that the study of nature led to an appreciation of Gods works, encouraged them to experiment

Question 9

According to Merton, what does science as an institution require and why?

Answer 9

An ‘ethos’ or set of norms that make scientists act in ways that serve the goal of increasing scientific knowledge

Question 10

What are the 4 norms that Merton identifies?

Answer 10

CUDOS - Communism (scientific knowledge is not private property and must therefore be shared), Universalism (the truth or falsity of scientific knowledge is judged by universal, objective criteria), Disinterestedness (being committed to discovering knowledge for its own sake) and Organised scepticism (no knowledge claim is regarded as ‘sacred’)

Question 11

What are closed belief systems?

Answer 11

They make knowledge claims that cannot be successfully overturned

Question 12

How does science differ from traditional religious belief systems?

Answer 12

While scientific knowledge is provisional, open to challenge and potentially disprovable, religion claims to have special, perfect knowledge of the absolute truth

Question 13

Who does not believe in coincidence or chance and explains all misfortune in terms of witchcraft?

Answer 13

The Azande

Question 14

What does Evans-Pritchard note about belief systems such as the Azande?

Answer 14

He notes that they are highly resistant to challenges

Question 15

Polanyi argues that belief systems have three devices to sustain themselves in the face of apparently contradictory evidence. What are these devices?

Answer 15

Circularity, Subsidiary evidence and Denial of legitimacy to rivals

Question 16

What does Kuhn argue about mature sciences such as geology, biology or physics?

Answer 16

That they are based on a set of shared assumptions that he calls paradigms

Question 17

What do paradigms tell scientists?

Answer 17

A paradigm tells scientists what reality is like, what problems to study and what methods and equipment to use, what will count as evidence, and even what answers they should find when they conduct research

Question 18

According to Kuhn, what sort of science are scientists engaged in?

Answer 18

Normal science

Question 19

What does Kuhn liken normal science to?

Answer 19

Puzzle solving - the paradigm lays down the broad outlines and the scientists’ job is to carefully fill in the details

Question 20

According to Kuhn, what happens to scientists who challenge the fundamental assumptions of the paradigm?

Answer 20

They are ridiculed and hounded out of the profession

Question 21

According to Kuhn, when does a scientific revolution occur?

Answer 21

When faith in the truth of the paradigm is undermined by an accumulation of anomalies - results that the paradigm cannot account for

Question 22

What do interpretivists argue about scientific knowledge?

Answer 22

They argue that it is socially constructed

Question 23

What does Karin Knorr-Cetina argue about the invention of new instruments, such as telescopes or microscopes?

Answer 23

She argues that they permit scientists to make new observations and construct or ‘fabricate’ new facts

Question 24

What does Knorr-Cetina argue about what scientists study in a laboratory?

Answer 24

She argues that what scientists study in the laboratory is highly ‘constructed’ and far removed from the natural world that they are supposedly studying

Question 25

What do ethnomethodologists such as Steve Woolgar argue about scientific facts?

Answer 25

He argues that a scientific fact is simply a social construction or belief that scientists are able to persuade their colleagues to share - it is not necessarily a real thing ‘out there’

Question 26

How do critical perspectives such as Marxism and Feminism see scientific knowledge?

Answer 26

They regard it as serving the interests of dominant groups e.g the ruling class and men

Question 27

How do postmodernists such as Lyotard view science?

Answer 27

They argue that science is one of a number of meta-narratives or ‘big-stories’ that falsely claim to possess the truth

Question 28

What do some postmodernists argue that science has become?

Answer 28

Techno science - simply serving capitalist interests by producing commodities for profit

Question 29

What is ideology?

Answer 29

A worldview or a set of ideas and values that form a belief system

Question 30

In order for a revolution to occur, what must the working class first become aware of?

Answer 30

Their true position as exploited ‘wage slaves’ by developing a class consciousness

Question 31

What is the purpose of ruling class ideology?

Answer 31

It legitimates or justifies the status quo

Question 32

Who refers to the ideological domination of society as hegemony?

Answer 32

Antonio Gramsci

Question 33

Why does Gramsci argue that the working class can develop ideas that challenge ruling class hegemony?

Answer 33

Because in a capitalist society, workers have a dual consciousness

Question 34

What is a dual consciousness?

Answer 34

A mixture of ruling class ideology and ideas they develop from their own direct experience of exploitation and their struggles against it

Question 35

According to Gramsci, what is required to overthrow capitalism?

Answer 35

A political party of ‘organic intellectuals’ - that is, workers who through their anti-capitalist struggles have developed a class consciousness and can spread it throughout the working class

Question 36

How do Abercrombie et al contradict Gramsci’s view that it is a dominant ideology that keeps the workers in line and prevents attempts to overthrow capitalism?

Answer 36

They argue that it is economic factors such as the fear of unemployment that keeps workers from rebelling

Question 37

How does Mannheim see belief systems?

Answer 37

He sees all belief systems as a partial or one-sided worldview that reflect the views of groups of intellectuals who attach themselves to particular classes or social groups

Question 38

What two belief systems does Mannheim distinguish between?

Answer 38

Ideological thought and Utopian thought

Question 39

What is ideological thought according to Mannheim?

Answer 39

It justifies keeping things as they are and it reflects the position and interests of privileged groups such as the capitalist class so favours hierarchy

Question 40

What is Utopian thought according to Mannheim?

Answer 40

It justifies social change and reflects the position and interests of the underprivileged and offers a view of how society could be organised differently

Question 41

In Mannheims view, what is the solution to the one-sidedness of belief systems?

Answer 41

To ‘detach’ the intellectuals from the social groups they represent and create a non-aligned or free-floating intelligentsia standing above the conflict

Question 42

What do feminists such as Pauline Marks argue about ideas from science?

Answer 42

She argues that ideas from science have been used justify excluding women from education as higher education would result in women being unable nurture infants

Question 43

What evidence is that that belief systems do not subordinate women?

Answer 43

There is evidence that in the early history of the Middle East, Europe and Asia, before the emergence of monotheistic patriarchal religion, matriarchal religions with female deities were widespread