On science as an object of explanation: philosophical and sociological perspectives.

Abstract

A quarter of a century ago, a profound transformation gave rise to the constitution of a cognitivist orientation in the field of sociology of science, reestablishing, in a certain general sense, a connection with the classical sociology of knowledge. This article argues that this process cannot be understood within a particular disciplinary framework, but rather at the level of the metascientific field as a whole, beginning with the Kuhnian turn. It focuses on some fundamental assumptions of classical philosophical styles that were central to questioning during this transition.