Research In Karin D.Knorr-Cetina's Constructive View Of Science

Firstly the philosophical agenda of Knorr-Cetina's theory of construction is generally introduced as a whole. Secondly it is analysed concretely on the constructive view of science: the construction of scientific experiment and the construction of scientific paper. The text is driven to assess Knorr-Cetina's constructive view of science at last.Objectivist regarded science as a description of nature. Criticizing the view of description, Knorr-Cetina emphasized the science to be constructive, and constructed in the context. There was much selection in the process of construction. As a foundation of scientific research, the scientific laboratory was not descriptive but constructive, constructed in the context. The traditional philosopher of science emphasized the distinction between the context of discovery and the context of justification. Knorr-Cetina thought it difficult to differentiate the justification from discovery, thinking that there was construction in the scientific discovery. Concretely Knorr-Cetina thought that there was construction in scientific experiment. What characterized the selection of the scientific laboratory was opportunism, localization and social interaction When the scientists constructed experiment, they adopted social strategy, considering social interest. Then Knorr-Cetina thought that there was construction in scientific paper. In order to make the paper accepted, the scientist adopted social strategy, as a result the paper was not written to disclose the research process in the laboratory. Considering that they didn't get the last result of experiment, the scientists have modified the scientific paper many times.Seen from the concert theory, Knorr-Cetina's theory of construction was a good example of describing the scientific research, because participating method had been used to describe the construction of science, explaining that cognitive element and social element was mixed together in the construction of science. But Knorr-Cetina had ignored the normalization of science, not connecting truth, logic and objectivity to standards of scientific discovery, assessment and justification, as a result scientific progress couldn't be seen in the theory of construction.