SOCIOLOGY ASOCIOLOGICAL CORE - AN EXAMINATION OF TEXTBOOK SOCIOLOGY IN LIGHT OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

The sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) has challenged many of the ''core'' conceptions of theory and method that remain entrenched in s ociology textbooks. In conjunction with recent developments in history and philosophy of science, sociologists of science speak of the disun ity of science and describe the local-historical origins of particular scientific facts and laws. ''Core'' sociology textbooks devote no att ention to the methodological implications of recent sociology of scien ce. Elementary textbooks present upbeat versions of the discipline tha t emphasize sociology's scientific methodology; they describe sociolog ical methods as implementations of a general research process designed along hypothetico-dedective lines. Viewed from the vantage point of S SK, such widely disseminated elementary versions of sociology promote an asociological conception of science. In this paper we suggest that the ''epistemic flattening'' accomplished by SSK's research on the nat ural sciences provides a valuable antidote to current anxieties about the coherence and scientific status of sociology.