Two Images of Science

Abstract

Until relatively recently, descriptions of science have been characterised by an ahistorical approach, with a heavy emphasis on logic, on the unified nature of science, on the principle of empiricism and on formal analysis. Science, from this perspective, is an enterprise controlled by logic and empirical facts, whose purpose is to formulate truths about the laws of nature. This dominant view has long been firmly entrenched and taken for granted. It has enjoyed the support not only of philosophers of science but of practising scientists as well. Slowly, however, this image of science is being replaced by a new image, where science is viewed as a social activity. This new image is represented by Thomas Kuhn, Michael Polanyi, Paul Feyerabend, Stephen Toulmin and others. As I will indicate in the following pages, it shares many characteristics with that part of sociology which is referred to as the sociology of knowledge.