The Decade of the '70s

Bloor one of the founders of SSK begins his (1991) with a question: "Can the sociology of knowledge investigate and explain the very content and nature of scientific knowledge?" The question has the merit of beginning at the very beginning; it has to do with the novelty and, in this case, with the feasibility of attempting to give sociology a role in epistemology a field traditionally located in the philosophical province.Bloor presents his book as an argument to convince even hesitant, stubborn, critical, or skeptical people. But the interesting thing is that Bloordoes not direct the question, nor address his argument, to philosophers but to sociologists.4 These very sociologists had refrained from including the analysis of knowledge in their field of work.

But if Bloor did not address his argument to philosophers in the first place, their answer was as rapid as it was blunt: in absence of a plausible program of sociology of knowledge, and of empirical literature on which to base it, philosophers would reject the "sociological temptation" and refrain from searching for the roots of rational explanation of human beliefs in sociological soil. The "intellectual historian" ought to devote his attention to a "rational historiography of ideas" because of its greater success ratio compared to cognitive sociology.5 This negative answer to Bloor's question global rejection is the initial philosophical position towards SSK. And this answer is the explicit target of Shapin's (1982) well known paper, where he responds in a similar blunt fashion to at least a part of the objection, the supposed lack of empirical literature. But, at the same time, paraphrasing in the title of his paper the title of Lakatos's (1971) influential paper, Shapin addresses himself to the very source of the philosophical reaction. The importance of Lakatos's paper resides, in the first place, in its decisive support for the demand by Kuhn of "a role for history" in science studies; this support will be, in turn, a decisive step in the process of the naturalization of philosophy. But the influence of Lakatos's paper in the later development of philosophy of science has another side; with the same firmness with which he opens the door to history, he closes it to sociology, transferring the radical dividing line between descriptive and normative to one between internalism and externalism. If Shapin, in turn, hopes to produce some impact by paraphrasing the title of Lakatos's paper, it is, so to speak, to reopen a door that Lakatos had closed. He hopes to attain for sociology what Lakatos had for history.

The '80s

This paper by Shapin marks the beginning of a decade of changes and novelties in both SSK and philosophy of science. Concerning SSK, at the beginning of the decade, well known anthologies6 appeared that, as Giere (1988) claims, constitute "a sure sign of a movement's reaching maturity (or at least reaching for maturity").7 Throughout the decade, several important books8 appeared that show, in the words of Bloor (1991), that "the main proof of the possibility of the sociology of knowledge is its actuality."9 All of these works, including the anthologies, show the broad diversity and divergences that had characterized this movement since its beginning regarding both the theoretical claims and analytical tools, and the empirical fields of exploration. Although this diversity makes it difficult to speak of SSK as a single movement or program, its protagonists have seen it as a positive sign, and have worked as if they were members of a movement whose convergences were more important than the divergences.

Regarding philosophy of science with its even more obvious diversification the change that I want to emphasize here has to do with what is now call its naturalization.11 Yet although naturalization is a clear bet for working empirically and interdisciplinarily in science studies and, therefore, an arena where one could hope that there exists a place for sociology philosophers' reaction against SSK remains the same as at the beginning. This is no longer expressed as an explicit rejection; it is, rather, a matter of completely ignoring SSK. In the philosophical literature of the '80s, there exist no references to SSK;12 if anything, we hear only the distant sound of the controversy rationality versus relativism.

The '90s

At the beginning of the present decade, one can appreciate a few significant changes. In the field of SSK there is a change from the initial defensive attitude to the security that comes from the fruitful works of the preceding decade. Thus Bloor (1991), for example, says: "The cumulative effect of these [works] has been to alter the terms of the debate. It has tipped it in favor of the strong program"; however, he admits immediately: "This is despite inevitable and healthy differences of opinion as well as many unsolved problems."13 Barnes (1990), for his part, claims that the sociological approach to knowledge has inspired, and is confirmed by, an important number of empirical works. The remaining resistance and misunderstanding, he says, is due to a "long-established notion of evaluation"; yet, he adds, "it is as the plausibility of this individualistic rationalist account of evaluation in science has declined that the alternative sociological conception has come to be taken seriously."

Other important news in the sociological field has to do with the nature and range of internal divergences. As I have said before, since the beginning there has been an explicit acknowledgment of the existence of such divergences although also an explicit agreement about the priority of convergences over divergences. It is the consensus around this agreement that has changed recently. What are these divergences? For Barnes (1990) the main internal divergence in SSK resides among those like himself in the Strong Program who look for a general explanatory theory, and those who, on the other hand, claim that sociological analysis must consist of and limit itself to a descriptive task.15 For Woolgar, instead, there exists a general agreement among sociologists in their interest in the sociological analysis of the technical content of knowledge; the main difference consists of spelling out "what exactly such contents' might be and how they should best be studied." A sociohistorical explanatory argument based on interests, he says, is "undermined by incongruent causal and realist assumptions."

Latour's case is somewhat different. He began working independently of SSK, joined it later, but now seems to be moving away from it. He or what is now called the Paris School sees SSK as undermined by traditional conceptual dichotomies such as subject/object, Nature/Society precisely the ones which the current authority of natural scientists relies on.

Pickering's case is also different; beginning as a militant protagonist of SSK, this author now complains that SSK as its very name suggests promotes a view of science studies that gives priority to its conceptual product, i.e., knowledge. In so doing, he says, it has given a weak, idealized, and reductive view of science, that, for this very reason, turns out to be useless "to catch up the richness of the doing of science," namely: "the dense work of building instruments, planning, running, and interpreting experiments, elaborating theory, negotiating with laboratory managements, journals, grant-giving agencies, and so on." Pickering, then, now challenges that the analysis of science-as-knowledge of traditional SSK could be useful for the understanding of science-as-practice; this last, he claims since it requires a new set of principles, analytical tools, and work agenda makes a separation from the originary root necessary.

What about the impact of the '80s works of SSK on philosophy of science? Indeed, it has not been very great. Yet it is quite interesting to note in recent philosophical literature increasing references to SSK, even if only to mark distance. Far from the initial global disqualification and/or ignorance, some philosophers have made SSK in general or some of its subprograms in particular the main target of their arguments. So, for example, Earman (1992) gives it the status of "the most elusive and insidious opponent." In the same book, Boyd claims that, "The conception of science as a matter of social construction is worthy of serious elaboration and criticism." Niiniluoto (1991), for his part, sees SSK as a branch of naturalism, different from the philosophical one in that for the former "scientific beliefs have no special relationship with reason, truth or reality"; he acknowledges the interest of SSK's case studies, but considers them insufficient to justify its "radical conclusions."Kitcher's (1991) view seems more neutral, where he merely distinguishes a propositional model of knowledge in which it appears as a set of well founded true beliefs, and knowledge as a property of individuals from the view of knowledge as a social realization. Another reference of this last author, showing the current impact of SSK on the philosophical community, is from his (1993). Here, in the context of acknowledging that there could be, in science studies, other interesting issues besides the cognitive one, this author says: "Philosophers have ignored the social context of science; the point, however, is to change it." Although Kitcher's sentences clearly imply his rejection of SSK whose concern is precisely with the cognitive issue in which it does not separate knowledge from its social context it is very significant that a reference to social context as an issue that concerns philosophers even appears. Never before the existence of SSK had philosophers acknowledged that this also could be a philosophical issue.