Science for Social Scientists

303 Pages·1984·26.579 MB·English

by  John Law, Peter Lodge (auth.)

SCIENCE FOR SOCIAL SCIENTISTS
SCIENCE FOR
SOCIAL SCIENTISTS
JOHN LAW and PETER LODGE
M
MACMILLAN PRESS
LONOON
© John Law and Peter Lodge 1984
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission.
First published 1984 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-0-333-35101-7 ISBN 978-1-349-17536-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-17536-9
Contents
Acknowledgements viii
List of Illustrations ix
1 Introduction 1
PART I PEOPLE AND THEIR KNOWLEDGE
2 Classification 15
3 Inference 24
4 Networks 31
The relations between terms 31
Differences between networks-or why we don't all
believe the same thing 33
Meaning, intension and extension 40
5 Links between Classes: Economy and Coherence 45
Association or linking 45
The economy of links 48
6 Links between Classes: Strength 54
Personalist probability 54
Probability and utility 56
7 Workability and Truth 62
An analogy with visual representation 62
Correspondence and workability 65
8 Philosophies of Science and the Network Theory 73
Prescription or description 73
Observation and neutral observation languages 75
J. S. Mill's inductivism and K. R. Popper's
falsificationism 77
Dictionary theories of science 81
Vl Contents
PART II THE ACQUISITION OF KNOWLEDGE
9 The Acquisition of Social Coherence Conditions:
Perception 87
Learning to 'see' 88
Seeing by doing 91
10 The Acquisition of Social Coherence Conditions:
Manipulation 97
Action 97
The role of the tacit 101
11 The Acquisition of Social Coherence Conditions:
Metaphor and Theory 104
On similarity and metaphor 104
The case of John Dalton 105
Metaphor and theory 112
On prediction and explanatory style 115
PART III INTERESTS AND THE DEVELOPMENT
OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE
12 Interests and Knowledge 125
13 Interests and the Growth of Knowledge 134
Science as the disinterested search for truth 134
Knowledge and its audiences 136
Interests and the growth of expert knowledge 139
14 Negotiation, Persuasion and the Power of Knowledge 143
People and their knowledge 143
Negotiations over gravity waves 144
Idealism, logic and natural rationality 149
15 Scientific Socialisation and the Alignment of
Networks 155
Scientific socialisation 156
The limits to alignment 160
16 Normal Science and the Operation of Interests 164
17 Anomalies and Scientific Revolutions 171
Misfits and anomalies 171
Anomalies and revolutions 174
Contents Vll
PART IV SOCIAL SCIENCE AND NETWORK
THEORY
18 The Social Structure of 'Primitive' Ideas: the Azande
Poison Oracle 189
Introduction 189
Azande rationality 190
Differences between science and the primitive 195
19 The Social Structure of Common Sense 201
20 The Social Structure of Ideology 207
Marx and ideology 207
Mannheim and sociology of knowledge 211
Barnes and ideological determination 216
21 The 'Problem' of Relativism 223
22 The Problem of Verstehen 230
Learning about social structure 232
Verstehen 235
Reasons and causes 238
Conclusion 242
23 Science and Social Science 245
24 Self-confidence and the Redundancy of Philosophy 255
Endnotes 263
Bibliography 282
Glossary 285
Name Index 289
Subject Index 292
Acknowledgements
Amongst those who read earlier versions of this text, we would
particularly like to thank Michel Callon, Jean-Pierre Courtial and
Serge Bauin. We would also like to thank the following for kind
permission to reproduce redrawn versions of illustrations and
maps: D. H. Hubel, T. N. Wiesel and the Physiological Society for
figure 2.1; R. L. Gregory and Weidenfeld & Nicolson for figures
2.2, 2.3 and 2.4, which are taken from The Intelligent Eye; London
Transport for figure 7.1 (London Transport Underground Map,
Registered User Number, 83/E/214); The Ordnance Survey for
figure 7.2 (Crown Copyright Reserved); Charles H. Hayward and
Evans Brothers Ltd for figures 10.1 and 10.2 from The Complete
Book of Woodwork; the Ford Motor Car Company for figures 7.3
and 7.4.
J. L.
P. L.
viii
List of Illustrations
2.1 The relationship between the angle of a line and the
number of times a single cell fires 16
2.2 Association by proximity 17
2.3 Association by shape 17
2.4 The detection of a plane which is not there 17
2.5 Shapes with something in common 18
2.6 More shapes with something in common 18
2.7 More shapes with similarities and differences 20
2.8 Is this a boat? 21
2.9 Another boat? 21
3.1 Two kinds of links 25
3.2 Associations with earthworms 26
3.3 Associations with sickness 27
4.1 Links between sickness and other classes 32
4.2 Links between death and other classes 32
4.3 Further links between death and other classes 33
4.4 Four classes built up on the basis of substantial
similarity 34
4.5 Tentative animal taxonomy 35
4.6 Three-class solution to the anomalous whale
problem 36
4. 7 Two-class solution to the anomalous whale
problem (whale= 'fish') 37
4.8 Two-class solution to the anomalous whale
problem (whale = 'mammal') 37
4.9 'Bird' or 'kobtiy'? 39
4.10 Young girl or old hag? 40
4.11 The Necker cube 40
5.1 A network about mammals 46
5.2 A network about mammals 46
5.3 The anomalous playing card 48
5.4 Two views of British social hierarchy 50
6.1 A network about some animals 57
IX
X List of Illustrations
6.2 A network about some animals with probabilities 57
6.3 All possible links between five terms 58
6.4 All possible links between four classes 59
6.5 A network which includes the duck-billed platypus 59
6.6 A redefinition of the term 'mammal' 59
7.1 Conventional map of the London Underground
System 63
7.2 Detail from United Kingdom Ordnance Survey
map 64
7.3 A picture of a motor car 66
7.4 A cutaway picture of a motor car 67
7.5 Disanalogies between a 'yakt' and a 'kobtiy' 69
7.6 Birds and ratitae 70
8.1 Induction and network theory compared 78
8.2 An example of Campbell's 'dictionary theory' of
science 82
9.1 Representation of plant cells 89
9.2 Enigmatic shapes 91
9.3 Nuthatch 92
9.4 Attributes of nuthatches after Roger Tory
Peterson 93
10.1 The correction of an error in planing wood 98
10.2 Placing the back iron in a plane 99
11.1 Atoms of azote and hydrogen with their
atmospheres of caloric 107
11.2 Simple and compound atmospheres after Dalton 108
11.3 Spatial arrangements of atoms. The first group
shows how twelve spheres can touch the surface of
another (hidden). Groups two and three illustrate
the most probable stereo-chemical combinations
according to Dalton's chemical atomism 109
11.4 Daltonian atoms and compounds 110
13.1 Demonstration skull for phrenology 136
13.2 A version of the frontal sinuses 140
15.1 Anomalous polyhedra 161
16.1 X-ray diffraction by crystal 165
17.1 Rate of uptake of substrate as influenced by
DIVEMAs of several kinds, at three different
concentrations 172
22.1 Approved reading of an Advent calendar 234