A Study Of The Merton Thesis On The Relationship Between Puritanism And Science

The Merton thesis in a narrow sense usually means the positive relationship between puritanism and modern science.Since Merton's doctoral dissertation was finished in 1935,the Merton thesis has gradually become the center of scholarly debate,and gone through approval and criticism,extension and revision as well as miscomprehension and clarification so far.In the early phase of the Merton thesis,namely from 1930s to 1950s,it only caused slight impact instead of sensational attention.There were about ten pieces of reviews in the field of sociology and history,including relatively important reviews from Joseph Needham and Jones.While the most important criticism was from Carroll,whose article named "Merton's thesis on English science" was the first official critical literature on the Merton thesis.In the middle phase,namely from 1960s to 1970s,the interest of historians and sociologists on the Merton thesis climbed to the top,and the debate was increasingly fierce,which caused a large quantity of literatures.These literatures especially include the summary and defense of Kuhn,the reinforcement and extension of Hill and Webster as well as the revision and criticism of Rabb,Hill,Kearney and Morgan.In the late stage,namely from 1980s to 1990s,the enthusiasm of academia remained undiminished and faded away until the late 1990s.Literatures during that time contained not only the empirical criticism of Becker,but also the comprehension and defense of Abraham,Ben-David and Shapin from the angle of sociology.After entering the 21st century,the Merton thesis can hardly arouse extensive interest,but the attention still lasts.In particular,literatures involve the continuing criticism of Becker after the last century,the refinement and defense of Gilje,the summary and criticism of Cole as well as the extension of Enebakk.The discussions on the Merton thesis among theses years are related to lots of issues,which mainly include as follows:understanding science,puritanism,protestantism,religion and the relationship among them;the sociological thoughts,theories and methods of Merton;the empirical evidences of the Merton thesis;the relationship between the Merton thesis regarding religion and science and that regarding other socio-culture and science.