The ArgumentIn Merton's early work in the sociology of science three theses are identified: economic and military influence in shaping early modern science; the “Puritan spur” to scientific activity; the critical role of a democratic social order for the support of science. These themes are located in the contemporary economic crisis of the 1930s, the rise of Nazism and fascism, and the emerging radical and Marxist political activism of scientists in the United States and the United Kingdom. Merton's interaction with (...) this context is critical for understanding his choice of problems and issues for the nascent sociology of science. The enunciation of the four-part normative structure of science is closely identified with the political ideals of this context. Merton's transition from an interest in problems of science in society to his postwar concern with the social and organizational structures of science and the social behavior of scientists is framed against the anticommunist and anti-Marxist thrust of immediate postwar politics in the United States. The implications of this change for the paradigms of the sociology of science are noted. (shrink)

: Half a century of political Marxism and Soviet social science deflected Marxist thought from its canonical sources. Communism and Marxism were so intertwined by events of the twentieth century that it is difficult to see what remains of the latter after the demise of the former. Specifically, three foundational principles--"being determines consciousness," the Asiatic Mode of Production, and "the ideas of the ruling class are the ruling ideas"--have been corrupted by heartfelt ideological commitments. A review of those principles against (...) the background of Marxist writing on the history of science stakes out research frontiers that remain to be reconnoitered. (shrink)

In the context of the relationship between science and society, the internalist pa- radigm of the history of science does not appear to be satisfactory. The fact that a paradigm for Science and Technology / Society Studies has not been built yet, does not prevent the researchers to analyse the effects of social phenomena on science. The economic structure of society, which is one of the non-epistemological factors, has at least as much effect as the epistemological factors on the development (...) or stagnation of science in a given society. In this study, we intend to make a comparison between European Science that developed through “non-scientific” factors in the 17th century and Ottoman Science that could not develop due to “non-scientific” factors. The Science evolved into positivism from its phase of craftsman and engineers developed relatively due to the economic and social structure differences in the Ottoman Empire compared to Europe. (shrink)