IN PRAISE OF FUTILE GESTURES - HOW SCIENTIFIC IS THE SOCIOLOGY OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

Calls for sociologists of knowledge to be committed to their subjects are examined critically. The idea of 'commitment to commitment' is sho wn to be based either on fallacious reasoning or on a disguised call f or commitment to the author's favoured causes. The 'universal' end 'lo cal inevitability' arguments are analyzed and shown to be wrong. The f ormer suggests that every scientific claim includes a commitment, will y-nilly; the latter says that analysts will be 'captured', whether the y like it or not. A particular case of the reception of a case study o f a controversy is described; the reception of this case went against expectations, and some speculations are offered about the cause. Insta nces where the subject of a sociological study is also the object of s tudy are looked at Finally, good reasons for commitment are set out: o ne thing that the sociologist of science should engage in is 'analytic critique of science: and this involves commitment.