Making Science: Between Nature and Society [Paperback]

Stephen Cole (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 1995 | ISBN-10: 0674543440 | ISBN-13: 978-0674543447

The sociology of science is dominated today by relativists who boldly argue that the content of science is not primarily determined 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. It argues that although the focus of scientific research, the rate of scientific advance, and indeed the everyday making of science are influenced by social variables and processes, the content of the core of science is constrained by nature.

Editorial Reviews

Review

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 (Contemporary Sociology )

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 (Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences )

About the Author

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

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (August 11, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674543440
• ISBN-13: 978-0674543447
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,006,828 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good account on Science studies, July 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Making Science: Between Nature and Society (Hardcover)

Cole's book is a good account of current perspectives about sociological approaches to science - without prophetism nor milenarism. The author himself tries to criticise both constructivist and positivist approaches regarding a deeper analysis of scietific affairs and its making in the scientific mileu. He also rises interesting analyses about the notion of consensus in both the "research frontier" and the "core knowledge" trying to debunk the comonplace idea that in natural sciences the consensus is higher than in social sciences. I reckon he carries out a serious and interesting critique on some constructivist standpoints... well, just read it.