sociology easter hw
Why does society have faith in science?
Due to science having a massive impact on society, and being successful in improving quality of life, there is a âfaith in scienceâ that science can âdeliver the goodsâ.
Why has societies faith in science started to fail? provide examples!
This faith has (more recently) become dimmed by a recognition that science may also cause problems as well as solve them. E.g. Pollution, weapons of mass destruction, global warming, etc⌠While science has helped us in many ways, it has created its own âmanufactured risksâ that increasingly threaten the planet.
Briefly explain what is meant by the âcognitive powerâ of science.
Both the good and bad effects of science demonstrate the key feature distinguishing it from other belief systems or knowledge claims, that is, itsâ cognitive power. In other words, sceience enables us to explain, predict and control the world in a way that non-scientific or pre-scientific belief systems cannot do.
According to Popper, in what way is science an open belief system?
Science is an open belief system where every scientistâs theories are open to scrutiny, criticism and testing by others.
Briefly explain what is meant by âthe principle of falsificationismâ.
Science is governed by the principle of falsificationism, that is, scientists try to set out and falsify existing theories, deliberately seeking evidence that would disprove them. In science, knowledge-claims live or die by the evidence.
What is meant by science being cumulative?
Scientific knowledge is cumulative, it builds on the achievements of previous scientists to develop a greater and greater understanding of the world around us.
Isaac newton said- âif I have been able to see so far, it is by standing on the shoulders of giantsâ
(Isaac newton stole gravity ideas from an Indian physicist.)
According to Popper, what prevents scientific knowledge from being sacred or absolute truth?
It can always be questioned, criticised, tested and perhaps shown to be false.
According to Merton, who first supported scientific thinking? Why?
Functionalist Merton argues that science can only thrive as a major social institution if it recieves support from other institutions and values. He argues that it first ocured in england as a result of the values and attitudes created by the protestant reformation, especially puritanism (A form of calvinism).
C- Communism- Scientific knowledge is not private property, scientists must share it with the scientific community by publishing their findings or science will not grow.
U-Universalism- The truth or falsity of scientific knowledge is judged by universal objective criteria such as testing and not by the particular race, sex, etc⌠of the scientists who produce it.
D-Disinterestedness- This means being committed to discovering knowledge for its own sake. Having to publish their findings makes it harder for scientists to practice fraud, since it enables others to check their claims.
OS-Organised Scepticism- No knowledge-claim is regarded as âsacredâ. Every idea is open to questioning, criticism and objective investigation.
What makes religion a âclosed belief systemâ?
They make knowledge-claims that cannot be overturned successfully.
What prevents a closed belief system from being disproved?
Whenever its fundamental beliefs are threatened, a closed belief system has a number of âget-out-clausesâ or devices to prevent it from being disproves- at least in the eyes of its believers.
Use an example to illustrate how the Azande explain misfortune.
The Azande do not believe in coincidence or chance, if misfortune befalls the Azande, they may explain it in terms of witchcraft. E.g. My jealous neighbour is practicing witchcraft against me.
Another example can be âevil eyeâ, which is referred to by many people not just religious people.
How do the Azande deal with a suspected witch?
They will consult the princes magic potion oracle. A potion called âbengeâ will be given to a chicken, at the same time, the âbengeâ will be asked whether the accused is the source of witchcraft. If the chicken dies, the answer is yes, and the sufferer can go and publicly demand the witchcraft to stop.
According to Evans-Pritchard, what 3 functions does the Azande belief system perform?
1- Clears the air and prevents grudges from forming
2-Encourages neighbours to behave considerately to one another, to reduce the risk of an accusation.
3-Social control mechanism, to ensure conformity and cooperation.
What prevents the Azande from questioning the belief system?
It is a very resistant belief system, the believers are trapped within their own âidiom of beliefâ. pr way of thinking. Because they accept the systems basic assumptions (such as the existence of witchcraft), they cannot challenge it.
Self sustaining beliefs
Circularity- each idea in the system is explained in terms of another idea within the system and so on, sound & round.
subsidiary explanations- for example, if the oracle fails, it may be explained away as due to the incorrect use of the benge
denial of legitimacy to rivals- belief systems reject alternative world views by refusing to grant any legitimacy to their basic assumptions.
According to Polanyi, in what way is science a closed belief system?
Polanyi argues that ALL belief systems reject fundamental challenges to their knowledge-claims, science is no different.
What does Kuhn mean by paradigm?
A paradigm is a universally recognisable scientific achievement that, for a time, provides model problems and solutions to a community of practitioners
What does Kuhn mean by Normal Science?
Kuhn describes normal science as 'puzzle-solving'
What happens to those scientists who challenge the paradigm? When does a Scientific Revolution take place?
When faith in the truth of the paradigm has already been undermined by an accumulation of anomalies, results that the paradigm cannot account for. Only then do scientists become open to radically new ideas.
Box 1.4
Boycott of Dr Velikovksy was arranged
The sociology of Scientific Knowledge
Knorr-Cetina argues that the invention of new instruments such as telescopes or microscopes permits scientists to make new observations and construct or fabricate new facts.
Little Green Men
According to Woolgar, scientists are engaged in the same process of âmaking senseâ or interpreting the world as everyone else. When confronted by evidence from their observations ad experiments, they have to decide what it means. They do so by devising and applying theories or explanations, but then they have to persuade others to accept their interpretation.
Marxism- See scientific knowledge as far from pure truth. Believes it serves the interest of Bourgeoisie.
Feminism- Believes it serves the interest of Men.
Postmodernism- Reject knowledge-claims of science, Lyotard claims that science is one of a number of meta-narratives that falsely claim to possess the truth. Similar to Marxists, they also believe science has become techno-science, simply serving capitalist interests by producing commodities for profit.
Marxism & Ideology
The ruling class take advantage of the workers so it is in the workers favour to throw a socialist revolution and replace it with a classless communist society in which the means of production are owned collectively, not privately, and are used to benefit society as a whole.
The working class must become conscious of their true position as exploited âwage-slavesâ. They must develop class consciousness.
Ruling class ideology- Ideas that legitimate or justify the status quo. (the existing social setup).
Examples of RCI:
That equality will never work because it goes against âhuman natureâ.
Victim blaming ideas about poverty, such as what Bowles and Gintis call âthe poor are dumbâ theory of meritocracy. Everyone has an equal chance in life, therefore the poor must be poor as they are stupid or lazy,
Racist ideas about the inferiority of ethnic minorities, which divide black and white workers, and make them easier to rule.
Gramsci argues that the working class can develop ideas that challenge ruling class hegemony, as in a capitalist society, workers have a âdual consciousnessâ. A mixture between ruling class ideology and ideas that develop from their own direct experience of exploitation and their struggles against it. It is therefore possible for the working class to develop class consciousness and overthrow capitalism,
Organic intellectuals- workers who, through their anti-capitalist struggles have developed a class consciousness.
Abercombie et al. criticise this, and argue that it is economic factors such as the fear of unemployment that prevent workers from rebelling.
The Ideology of Nationalism.
3 features of nationalism:
Nations are real, distinctive communities each with its own unique characteristics and a long, shared history.
Every nation should be self-governing
National loyalty and identity should come before all others, such as tribe, class, religion, etcâŚ
Anderson argues that a nation is only an âimagined communityâ, not a real one. Although we identify with it, we will never know most of its other members. This imagined community can bind millions of strangers together and create a sense of common purpose.
Marxism: Nationalism as false consciousness.
Marx was an internationalist.
In the Marxist view, nationalism is a form of false class consiousness that helps to prevent the overthrow of capitalism by dividing the international working class. This is because nationalism encourages workers to believe they have more in common with the capitalists if their own country than with workers of other countries This has enabled the ruling class of each capitalist country to persuade the working class to fight wars on their behalf. E.g. Vietnam, India in WW1/WW2.
Functionalists & Nationalism.
Functionalists see nationalism as a secular civil religion. Similarly to religion, it integrates individuals into larger social and political units by making them feel part of somethings greater than themselves.
Education & Nationalism
According to functionalists, Education plays an important part in creating social solidarity. This may include collective rituals involving nationalist symbols such as the flag of the country or the national anthem, as well as learning the nations history. (which may be more myth than fact)
E.g. America and its civil religion.
Gellner also sees nationalism as false consciousness, its claim hat nations have existed since time immemorial is untrue. On the contrary, in Gellnersâ view, nationalism is a very âModern phenomenonâ. Pre-industrial societies were held together not by nationalism, but by face-to-face relationships in small scale communities, with a fixed hierarchy of ascribed statuses.
Gellner believes that Nationalism uses a mass state education system to impose a single, standard, national culture and language on every member of society.
Gellner also notes that elites use nationalism as an ideology to motivate the population to endure the hardships and suffering that accompany the first phase of industrialisation, thereby enabling a state to modernise.
Karl Manheim: Ideology & Utopia
Ideological thought- justifies keeping things as they are. It reflects the position and interests of the privileged groups such as the ruling (capitalist) class. These groups benefit by maintaining the status quo, so their belief systems tend to be conservative and favours hierarchy.
Utopian thought- justifies social change. It reflects the position and interests of the underprivileged and offers a vision of how society could be organised differently.
Manheim sees marxism as an example of Utopian thought.
These world-views are created by groups of intellectuals, who attach themselves to particular classes.
E.g. the role of Gramsciâs organic intellectuals is to create a working class or socialist worldview.
However, as these intellectuals represent the interests of particular groups, and not society as a whole, they only produce partial views of reality.
The belief system of each class or group only gives us a partial truth about the world.
For Manheim, this is a source of conflict in society. Different intellectuals, linked to different groups and classes, produce opposed and antagonistic ideas that justify the interests and claims of their group as against the others.
In Manheimsâ view, the solution is therefore to âdetachâ the intellectuals from the social groups they represent and create a non-aligned or âfree floating intelligentsiaâ standing above the conflict.
As they are freed from representing the interests of one particular group, they will be able to synthesise elements of the different partial ideologies and utopias, so as to arrive as a âtotalâ worldview that represented the interests of society, as a whole.
Feminism & Ideology.
Feminists see gender inequality as the fundamental division in society and patriarchal ideology as playing a key role in legitimating it.
Pauline Marks describes how ideas from science have been used to justify excluding women from education. She quotes 19th century (male) doctors, scientists and educationalists expressing the view that educating females would lead to the creation of âa new race of puny and unfeminineâ females and âdisqualify women from their true vocationâ, namely the nurturing of the next generation.
There are many examples that show how religious beliefs may define women as inferior, particiularly the idea that women are ritually impuire or unclean, (especially due to childbirth & menstruation). This has given rise to purification rituals such as ;churchingâ, after a woman has given birth.
More extreme (& contemporary) examples would be female genital mutilation. Although estimates of the prevalence of FGM vary, sources have consistently found the practice to be undergone by the majority of women in the Horn of Africa, in the West African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Mauritania, Mali and Burkina Faso, as well as in Sudan and Egypt. This is due to the belief that if a woman has a libido, she is impure & shameless. therefore, FGM is used to âcurbâ a womanâs desires. Although itâs horrifying & outlawed in most countries, it still happens all around the world, especially in more rural / tribal areas.
However, not all elements of religious belief systems subordinate women, for example, there is evidence that before the emergence of monotheistic patriarchal religions, matriarchal religions with female dieties were widespread, with female priests and the celebration of fertility cults. Similarly, in hinduism, goddesses have often been portrayed as âcreators of the universeâ.
OVERALL SUMMARY OF NOTES
Popper sees science as an open belief system, whereas religion and witchcraft are closed systems.
Kuhn argues that normal science is a closed system, that does not permit challenges to its paradigm.
Interpretivists see scientific knowledge as socially constructed.
Marxists & Feminists see science as serving dominant interests (capitalism and men).
Ideology is a one-sided worldview, legitimating a groupâs interests.
Marxists see institutions such as religion producing ruling-class ideology..
Nationalism is an ideology binding modern societies together.
Anderson argues that a nation is only an âimagined communityâ, not a real one.
Marxists believe Nationalism creates false class consciousness.
Gramsci argues that the working class can develop ideas that challenge ruling class hegemony, as in a capitalist society, workers have a âdual consciousnessâ.
Abercombie et al. criticise this, and argue that it is economic factors such as the fear of unemployment that prevent workers from rebelling.
Manheim distinguishes between ideological and utopian thought.
Feminists see patriarchal ideology as legitimating gender inequality.