Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T12:43:23.108Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Other Merton Thesis1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Harriet Zuckerman
Affiliation:
Department of SociologyColumbia University

Abstract

Written as one book, Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth-Century England has become two. One book, treating Puritanism and science, has since become “The Merton Thesis.” The other, treating shifts of interest among the sciences and problem choice within the sciences, has been less consequential. This paper proposes that neglect of one part of the monograph has skewed readers' understanding of the whole. Society and culture contributed to institutionalization of science and the directions it took, neither one exclusively. Four aspects of the neglected chapters are examined: (1) their theoretical underpinnings, the conceptions providing foundations for this part specifically and for the monograph as a whole; (2) their comparative neglect, attributed partly to the absence of a cognitive constituency for their claims; (3) the problem of problem choice in science in Merton's work; and (4) the Merton monograph and later social constructionism:their differences and affinities.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

This is a revised and expanded version of a paper presented in Jerusalem on May 18, 1988, at the International Workshop on Fifty Years of the Merton Thesis. I am grateful for research support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

References

Abraham, G. A., 1983. “Misunderstanding the Merton Thesis: A Boundary Dispute between History and Sociology,“ Isis 74:368–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, B., and Shapin, S. eds., 1979. Natural Order: Historical Studies of Scientific Culture. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Becker, H. S., 1942. “Review of Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth-Century England,” Rural Sociology 7:110.Google Scholar
Bloor, D., 1976. Knowledge and Social Imagery. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Böhme, G., van den Daele, W., Hohlfield, R., Krohn, W., and Schäfer, W., 1983. Finalization in Science: The Social Orientation of Scientific Progress, ed. Schafer, W.. Dordrecht: Reidel.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P., 1990. “Animadversiones in Mertonem,” in Clark 1990.Google Scholar
Burke, K., 1935. Permanence and Change. New York: New Republic.Google Scholar
Busch, L., Lacy, W. B., and Sachs, C., 1983. “Perceived Criteria for Research Problem Choice in the Agricultural Sciences—A Research Note,” Social Forces 62:190200.Google Scholar
Clark, G. N., 1937. Science and Social Welfare in the Age of Newton. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Clark, J., ed., 1990. Robert K. Merton: Consensus and Controversy. London and Philadelphia: Falmer Press, Taylor and Francis.Google Scholar
Cohen, I. B., 1973. “Review of Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth-Century England,” Scientific American 222:2, 117–20.Google Scholar
Cohen, I. B., 1988. “The Publication of Science, Technology and Society: Circumstances and Consequences,” Isis 79:571–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, I. B., 1990a. “Introduction,“ in Puritanism and the Rise of Modern Science: The Merton Thesis, ed. Cohen, I. B.. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, I. B., 1990b. “Some Documentary Reflections on the Dissemination and Reception of the Merton Thesis,“ in Clark 1990.Google Scholar
Cohn, S., 1986. “The Effects of Funding Changes upon the Rate of Knowledge Growth in Algebraic and Differential Topology, 1955–75,” Social Studies of Science 16:2359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cole, S., 1975. “Growth of Scientific Knowledge: Theories of Deviance as a Case Study,” in The Idea of Social Structure: Papers in Honor of Robert K. Merton, ed. Coser, L. A., 175220. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Cole, S., 1983. “The Hierarchy of the Sciences?American Journal of Sociology 89:111–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, H., 1982. “Knowledge, Norms, and Rules in the Sociology of Science,“ Social Studies of Science 12:299309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, H., 1983. “The Hierarchy of the Sciences?American Journal of Sociology 89:111–39.Google Scholar
Collins, H., 1982. “Knowledge, Norms, and Rules in the Sociology of Science,Social Studies of Science 12:299309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, H., 1983. “The Sociology of Scientific Knowledge: Studies of Contemporary Science,” Annual Review of Sociology 9:265–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleck, L., [1935] 1979. Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact, ed. Trenn, T. J. and Merton, R. K., trans. F. Bradley and T. J. Trenn. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Fujimura, J. H., 1987. “Constructing ‘Do-able’ Problems in Cancer Research: Articulating Alignment,” Social Studies of Science 17:257–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fujimura, J. H., 1988. “The Molecular Biological Bandwagon in Cancer Research: Where Social Worlds Meet,” Social Problems 35:261–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gieryn, T. F., 1978. “Problem Retention and Problem Change in Science,” Sociological Inquiry 48:96115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gieryn, T. F., 1980. Patterns in the Selection of Problems for Scientific Research: American Astronomers, 1950–75. Ph.D. diss., Columbia University.Google Scholar
Gieryn, T. F., 1982. “Relativist/Constructivist Programmes in the Sociology of Science: Redundance and Retreat,” Social Studies of Science 12:279–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gieryn, T. F., 1988. “Distancing Science from Religion in Seventeenth-Century England,“ Isis 79:582–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillispie, C. C., 1974. “Mertonian Theses,” Science 184:656–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilmour, C. S., 1986. “Federal Funding and Knowledge Growth in Ionospheric. Physics, 1945–81,” Social Studies of Science 16:105–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hargens, L., 1988. “Scholarly Consensus and Journal Rejection Rates,” American Sociological Review 53:139–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hufbauer, K., 1986. “Federal Funding and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Research, 1945–80,” Social Studies of Science 16:61–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, R. R., 1932. “Science and Language in England of the Mid-Seventeenth Century,” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 31:315–31.Google Scholar
Jones, R. R., 1936. Ancients and Moderns. St. Louis: Washington University Studies.Google Scholar
Knorr-Cetina, K. D., 1981. The Manufacture of Knowledge. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Kuhn, T. S., 1968. “History of Science,“ International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences 14:7483.Google Scholar
Laudan, L., 1977. Progress and Its Problems. Berkeley: Unniversity of California Press.Google Scholar
Merton, R. C., and Merton, R. K. in press. “Some Unanticipated Consequences of the Reward System in Science: A Model of the Sequencing of Problem Choices,” Rationality and Society.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., 1935a. Sociological Aspects of Scientific Development in Seventeenth-Century England. Ph.D. diss. Harvard University.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., 1935b. “Science and Military Technique,” Scientific Monthly 41:542–45.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., [1936] 1968. “Puritanism, Pietism and Science,“ Sociological Review 28:130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merton, R. K., Reprinted in Social Theory and Social Structure, 628–60. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., 1936. “The Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action,” American Sociological Review 1:894904.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merton, R. K., 1937a. “Some Economic Factors in Seventeenth-Century English Science,” Scientia: Revista di Scienza, 62:142–52.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., 1937b. “Science, Population and Society,” Scientific Monthly 44:165–71.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., [1938] 1970. Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth-Century England. New York: Howard Fertig.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merton, R. K., 1938. “Review of G. N. Clark, Science and Social Welfare in the Age of Newton,” Isis 29:119–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merton, R. K., [1938] 1968. “Science and the Social Order,” reprinted in Social Theory and Social Structure, 591603. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., [1939] 1968. “Science and Economy of Seventeenth-Century England,” reprinted in Social Theory and Social Structure, 661–82. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., [1945a] 1968. “The Bearing of Sociological Theory on Empirical Research,” reprinted in Social Theory and Social Structure, 139–55. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., [1945b] 1968. “The Sociology of Knowledge,” reprinted in Social Theory and Social Structure, 510–42. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., [1948a] 1968. “The Bearing of Empirical Research on Sociological Theory,” reprinted in Social Theory and Social Structure, 156–71. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., [1948b] 1968. “The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy,” reprinted in Social Theory and Social Structure, 475–92. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., [1949] 1968. “Manifest and Latent Functions,” reprinted in Social Theory and Social Structure, 73138. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., [1957] 1973. “Priorities in Scientific Discovery,” reprinted in his The Sociology of Science, 286324. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., [1959] 1982. “Notes on Problem-Finding in Sociology,” reprinted in his Social Research and the Practicing Professions, ed. Rosenblatt, A. and Gieryn, T. F., 1742. Cambridge, Mass.: Abt Books.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., [1961a] 1973 “Social Conflict over Styles of Sociological Work,” reprinted in his The Sociology of Science, 4769. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., [1961b] 1973. “Singletons and Multiples in Science,” reprinted in his The Sociology of Science, 343–70. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., [1961] 1976. “Social Problems and Sociological Theory,” reprinted in Contemporary Social Problems, ed. Merton, R. K. and Nisbet, R., 4th ed., 543. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch. Other versions published in 1966 and 1971.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., 1963. “Resistance to the Systematic Study of Multiple Discoveries in Science,” European Journal of Sociology 4:237–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merton, R. K., [1963] 1973. “Multiple Discoveries as a Strategic Research Site,” reprinted in his The Sociology of Science, 371–82. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., [1963] 1982. “Basic Research and Potentials of Relevance,” reprinted in his Social Research and the Practicing Professions, ed. Rosenblatt, A. and Gieryn, T. F., 213–23. Cambridge Moss.: Abt Books.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., [1965] 1985. On the Shoulders of Giants: A Shandean Postscript. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., 1968. Social Theory and Social Structure. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., 1970. “Preface: 1970, in Merton [1938] 1970.”Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., 1972. “Insiders and Outsiders: A Chapter in the Sociology of Knowledge,” American Journal of Sociology 77:947.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merton, R. K., 1977. The Sociology of Science: An Episodic Memoir. Carbondale: Southern Illinois Univeristy Press.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., 1984. “Socially Expected Durations I: A Case Study of Concept Formation in Sociology,” in Conflict and Consensus: A Festschrift for Lewis A. Coser, ed. Powell, W. W. and Robbins, R., 262–83. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K., 1987. “Three Fragments from a Sociologist's Notebooks: Establishing the Phenomenon, Specified Ignorance, and Strategic Research Materials,” Annual Reviews of Sociology 13:128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merton, R. K. and Lewis, R., 1971. “The Competitive Pressures (I): The Race for Priority,” Impact of Science on Society 21:151–61Google Scholar
Merton, R. K. and Winch, R. F., 1972. “Merton-Winch Correspondence,” American Journal of Sociology 78:221–31.Google Scholar
Messed, P., 1988. “Age Differences in the Reception of New Scientific Theories: The Case of Plate Tectonics Theory,” Social Studies of Science 18:91112.Google Scholar
Mulkay, M. J., 1976. “Norms and Ideology in Science,” Social Science Information 15:627–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mulkay, M. J., 1980. “Interpretation and the Use of Rules: The Case of Norms of Science,” in Science and Social Structure: A Festschrift for Robert K. Merton, ed. Gieryn, T. F., 111–25. New York: New York Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Mullins, N., 1975. “A Sociological Study of Scientific Revolution,” in Determinants and Controls of Scientific Development, ed. Knorr, K. D., Strasser, H., and Zillian, H. G., 185204. Dordrecht: Reidel.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Needham, J., 1938. “Review of Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth-Century England,” Science and Society 2:566–71.Google Scholar
Nelson, J. S., 1987. “Seven Rhetorics of Inquiry: A Provocation,” in The Rhetoric of the Human Sciences, ed. Nelson, J. S., Megill, A., and McCloskey, D., 407–34. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Nicholson, M. H., 1938. “Review of Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth-Century England,” American Sociological Review 3:882–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nickles, T., 1981. “What Is a Problem That We May Solve It?Synthese 47:85118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogburn, W. F., [1922] 1950. Social Change, with Respect to Culture and Original Nature, new ed. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Ogburn, W. F., and Thomas, D. S., 1922. “Are Inventions Inevitable? A Note on Social Evolution,” Political Science Quarterly 37:8398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patinkin, D., 1983. “Multiple Discoveries and the Central Message,” American Journal of Sociology 89:306–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickering, A., 1984. Constructing Quarks. A Sociological History of Particle Physics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Price, D. J. de Solla, [1963] 1986. Little Science, Big Science…and Beyond. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapin, S., 1974. “The Audience for Science in Eighteenth-Century Edinburgh,” History of Science 12:95121.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shapin, S., 1981. “The Merton Thesis,” in The Dictionary of the History of Science, ed. Bynum, W. F., Browne, E. J., and Porter, R., 262. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Shapin, S., 1988. “Understanding the Merton Thesis,” Isis 79:594605.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Small, H. G., 1978. “Cited Documents as Concept Symbols,” Social Studies of Science 8:327–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Star, S. L., 1983. “Simplification in Scientific Work: An Example from Neuroscience Research,” Social Studies of Science 13:205–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stern, B. J., 1939. “Review of Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth-Century England,” American Academy of Political and Social Science – Annals 202:62.Google Scholar
Stimson, D., 1935. “Puritanism and the New Philosophy in Seventeenth-Century England,” Bulletin of the Institute of the History of Medicine 3:321–34.Google Scholar
Sullivan, D., Barboni, E. J., and White, D. H., 1981. “Problem Choice and the Sociology of Scientific Competition: An International Case Study in Particle Physics,” Knowledge and Society 3:163–97.Google Scholar
Tatarewicz, J. N., 1986. “Federal Funding and Planetary Astronomy, 1950–75: A Case Study,” Social Studies of Science 16:79103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webster, C. 1972. “Review of Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth-Century England,” British Journal for the History of Science 6:94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woolgar, S., 1980. “Discovery, Logic and Sequence in a Scientific Text (1),” in The Social Process of Scientific Investigation, Sociology of Sciences Yearbook, vol 4., ed. Knorr, K. D., Krohn, R. and Whitley, R., 239–68. Dordrecht: Reidel.Google Scholar
Ziman, J. M., 1987. “Problem of ‘Problem Choice’,” Minerva 25:92106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zuckerman, H., 1979. “Theory Choice and Problem Choice in Science,” Sociological Inquiry 48:6595.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zuckerman, H., 1988. “The Sociology of Science,” in Handbook of Sociology, ed. Smelser, N. J., 511–74. Newbury Park, Ca.: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Zuckerman, H., and Lederberg, J., 1986. “Forty Years of Genetic Recombination in Bacteria: Postmature Scientific Discovery?Nature 324:629–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed