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Making Science Between Nature and Society

Name: Making Science Between Nature and Society
Author: Stephen Cole
ISBN: 9780674543447

by Stephen Cole

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Overview

The sociology of science is dominated today by relativists who boldly argue that the content of science is not influenced by evidence from the empirical world but is instead socially constructed in the laboratory. 'Making Science' is the first serious critique by a sociologist of the social constructivist position.

About the Author, Stephen Cole

Stephen Cole is Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

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Editorials

Booknews

In this study of the ways in which social processes and variables influence the growth of scientific knowledge, Cole addresses such intriguing topics as luck and getting an NSF grant, consensus in the natural and social sciences, evaluation and the characteristics of scientists, and conceptualizing and studying particularism in science. The final chapter discusses the future of the sociology of science, and an appendix describes the COSPUP NSF peer review experiment, from which much of the data is drawn. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Contemporary Sociology

For the general audience, [Making Science] offers a broad analysis of realism and relativism in science and helps shake sociologists out of a simple, positivist view of science, scientists, and their conduct. For specialists in the sociology of science, Cole's new book brings to bear a demanding appraisal of constructivism, and perhaps most consequentially, it demonstrates the need for continuing assessment of science as an occupation, institution, and activity.
— Mary Frank Fox

Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences

Presents a wealth of empirical material on the vast scope of anomalies and irregularities in the work of the scientific community. The survey includes a good deal of valuable material originating with the author and his collaborators.
— Alexander Vucinich