Martini, M. 2011. La Relación Merton-Shapin a partir del Debate Historiográfico Internismo/Externismo. Cinta moebio 42: 288-301

PDF | HTML

The Merton-Shapin relationship from the historiographic debate internalism/externalism

Dra. María Martini (mariadelosangelesmartini@gmail.com) Facultad de Ciencias Sociales,Universidad de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to show that the work of the sociologist of scientific knowledge Steven Shapin is inheriting from the internalism/externalism debate. That inheritance is expressed by the attempts that he makes to break the boundaries of the dichotomies, which were built during the dispute in the disciplinary fields of history of science, sociology of science and sociology of scientific knowledge. We will deal with the issues concerning the relation between Shapin’s work during the nineties and Robert Merton’s work, which was one of the pillars of this debate.

Key words: history of science, internalism, externalism, disciplinary boundaries, Merton, Shapin.