默顿与波拉尼:科学社会学的研究纲领比较

Merton versus Polanyi: comparison between their research programs of the sociology of sciences

在科学社会学中 ,美国的默顿学派和英国的爱丁堡学派历来聚讼纷纭 ,有时甚至势如水火。本文分析了对这两大学派影响至深的两位社会学家———默顿和波拉尼的研究纲领 ,默顿的科学观念基本上还是实证主义的 ,他的科学社会学研究较少涉及科学知识本身 ,或者说科学知识被“悬置”起来了。波拉尼对科学知识的论断富于洞察力 ,但在广泛的经验研究上 ,成果不甚显著 ,也未能指明更清晰的研究方向。作者指出 ,新的科学

In the sociology of sciences, Mertonian School in the United States has quarreled with Edinburgh School in the United Kingdom for a long time, sometimes it seems that they couldn't go on living in the same earth. The article retrospects the research programs of Merton and Polanyi who influenced the two schools significantly, and clarifies respectively their basic assumptions and main research themes. We find that Merton's idea of science is fundamentally positivist, and his study in the sociology of sciences hardly involves scientific knowledge itself, in other words, scientific knowledge is bracketed. Polanyi presents some insightful assertions on scientific knowledge, but his program is less fruitful in extensive empirical research and cannot indicate research directions more clearly. The authors conclude that the appearing conditions of science-society could shed light on the synthesis of the two controversial programs.