SOCI 325: Sociology of Science

Agenda

Normal science, paradigms, and scientific revolutions

  1. Administrative
  2. The Kuhnian revolution
  3. Group discussions

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Administrative

Notes

Peer assessment

  • For the rest of the term, each student will complete one or two peer assessments each week
  • Generally, these are due Mondays, but see sylabus for specifics
  • Some weeks (e.g. for next Monday), you will have have two separate assessments to complete
  • Peer assessment forms can be found on the class fileshare under “Forms”
  • Note: As with all of the work for this course, the use of generative AI for peer assessment is prohibited.
    This includes using chatbots to read/summarize worksheets or to write your feedback

Student discussion questions

  • You will receive an email within the next few days with your discussion question assignments (this time I mean it 🫣)
  • You will need to do the readings for your assigned days well before the due date
  • The earliest assignment will be due Sept 29

Kuhnian revolution

Thomas Kuhn (1922–1996)

  • Physicist by training
  • Transitioned to history and philosophy of science after PhD

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

  • First published in 1962
  • “Normal science” vs.
    “paradigm shifts”
  • Directly confronted the prevailing (functionalist) view of science as an institution
  • Had a huge impact, arguably spurring its own paradigm shift in the philosophy and sociology of science
A book cover. Flat red with large white text reading 'The structure of scientific revolutions' and small black text reading 'Thomas S. Kuhn'.

Example from particle physics

Normal
science

Crisis & revolution!

(paradigm shift)

Normal
science

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

…

2010s

Widespread agreement on elementary particles (proton, neutron, electron, photon)

Continued discovery of more and more members of the elementary “particle zoo”

Active development of new models (e.g. “eightfold way”)

Acceptance of Standard Model, explaining existing anomalies in a new theoretical framework, and predicting the existence of undiscovered particles

Experiments confirming predictions of the Standard Model, mainly through observation of predicted particles(top quark, tau neutrino, Higgs boson)

A labeled diagram of protons, neutrons, and electrons. A diagram of the '8-fold-way', showing various subatomic particles arranged on a hexagonal grid. A diagram of the 'standard model' in elementary particles, showing a structured grid of different particles with labels.

See Pickering (1984) “Constructing Quarks: A Sociological History of Particle Physics”

Why was Kuhn revolutionary?

A black and white portrait of a white man with thick rimmed glasses, apparently from the 1970s

Anti-positivist

  • Positivism is the idea that
    neutral observations inform and shape objective knowledge and theories.
  • In TSSR, Kuhn suggests instead that the theoretical frameworks of a paradigm shape observations and define scientific facts.
  • For Kuhn, facts do not exist without a paradigm that can give them meaning. Observation is dependent on theory.

Anti-falsificationist

  • Falsificationism is the idea that
    theories are disproven by counter-examples.
  • Kuhn argues that counter-examples (anomalies) do not normally cause crisis.
  • Only during revolutions in paradigm are anomalies employed as justification for new worldviews.

Next class

Structural barriers to participation in science

Required reading

  • van den Brink and Benschop (2012)
    Gender practices in the construction of
    academic excellence: Sheep with five legs

Image credit

A labeled diagram of protons, neutrons, and electrons.

Image credited to CNX OpenStax via Wikimedia

A labeled diagram of protons, neutrons, and electrons.

Image via Wikimedia

A diagram of the 'standard model' in elementary particles, showing a structured grid of different particles with labels.

Image via Wikimedia

A black and white portrait of a white man with thick rimmed glasses, apparently from the 1970s

Photo by Bill Pierce/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image via The Guardian

November Revolution: discovery of “J/psi meson” (charm/anticharm), announced 11 November 1974 Pickering, Andrew. Constructing Quarks: A Sociological History of Particle Physics. Reprint edition. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 1999.