ASCI 1110 Lecture 17: ASCI 1110 Lecture Merton
Document Summary
Merton is trying to get into the common psyche of science. There is a different image scientists show to the public from the image of the scientist in the lab. What standards of behaviour is binding the scienti c community (e. g. social norms ) There is something about the scienti c community that differentiates it from other communities. Standard of acceptable behaviour influencing action through rewards and sanctions. The ethos of science is that affectively toned complex of values and norms which is held to be binding on the man of science. The norms are expressed in the form of prescriptions, proscriptions, preferences, and permissions. They are legitimatized in terms of institutional values. These imperatives, transmitted by precept and example and reinforced by sanctions are in varying degrees internalized by the scientist, thus fashioning his scientific conscience or, if one prefers the latter-day phrase, his superego. A set of norms that scientists share according to merton.