On Science

Abstract

I now leave the man, and embark on the study of his ideas. The corpus of thought produced by a scientist always contains some, at least, implicit image of science.¹ It provides the general framework of assumptions within which his efforts acquire meaning and on the basis of which the scientist produces his substantive contributions. In the case of Merton, this image is quite explicit, developed and elucidated. This may derive from his lifelong preoccupation with the analysis of science, this being his hallmark from the doctoral dissertation of 1935 tracing the origins of modern Western science to the article published in 1984 which states his current position on that question in the wake of a debate which has been going on for fifty years.²