Robert K.

Merton
/7

Edited and
with an Introduction by
Norman W. Storer

The

Sociology
of
Science

13

The Normative
Structure of
Science
1942

Theoreticaland
Empirical
Investigations
Science, like any other activity involving social collaboration, is subject to
shifting fortunes. Difficult as the notion may appear to those reared in a
culture that grants science a prominent if not a commanding place in the
scheme of things, it is evident that science is not immune from attack,
restraint, and repression. Writing a little while ago, Veblen could observe
that the faith of western culture in science was unbounded, unquestioned,
unrivaled. The revolt from science which then appeared so improbable as
to concern only the timid academician who would ponder all contingencies,
however remote, has now been forced upon the attention of scientist and
layman alike. Local contagions of anti-intellectualism threaten to become
epidemic.

Science and Society

Incipient and actual attacks upon the integrity of science have led scientists
to recognize their dependence on particular types of social structure. Manifestos and pronouncements by associations of scientists are devoted to the
relations of science and society. An institution under attack must reexamine its foundations, restate its objectives, seek out its rationale. Crisis invites
self-appraisal. Now that they have been confronted with challenges to their
way of life, scientists have been jarred into a state of acute self-consciousness: consciousness of self as an integral element of society with correThe University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London

"'73

Originally published as "Science and Technology in a Democratic Order," Journal of

Legal and Political Sociology I (1942): 115-26; later published as "Science and
Democratic Social Structure," in Robert K. Merton, Social Theory and Social
SlruclUre. Reprinted with permission.

268

,i'

The Normative Structure of Science

The Normative Structure of Science

norms which is held to be binding on the man of science.2 The norms are
expressed in the form of prescaptions, proscriptions, preferences, and permissions. They are legitimatized in terms of institutional values. These
imperatives, transmitted by precept and example and reenforced 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. Although the ethos of science has not been codified,s it can be inferred
from the moral consensus of scientists as expressed in use and wont, in

sponding obligations and interests.1 A tower of ivory becomes untenable

when its walls are under prolonged assault. After a long period of relative
security, during which the pursuit and diffusion of knowledge had risen
to a leading place if indeed not to the first rank in the scale of cultural
values, scientists are compelled to vindicate the ways of science to man.
Thus they have come full circle to the point of the reemergence of science
in the modern world. Three centuries ago, when the institution of science
could claim little independent warrant for social support, natural philosophers were likewise led to justify science as a means to the culturally
validated ends of economic utility and the glorification of God. The pursuit
of science was then no self-evident value. With the unending flow of
achievement, however, the instrumental was transformed into the terminal,
the means into the end. Thus fortified, the scientist came to regard himself
as independent of society and to consider science as a self-validating enterprise which was in society but not of it. A frontal assault on the autonomy
of science was required to convert this sanguine isolationism into realistic
participation in the revolutionary conflict of cultures. The joining of the
issue has led to a clarification and reaffirmation of the ethos of modern

science.

countlesswritingson the scientificspirit and in moral indignationdirected.

toward contraventions of. the ethos.
An examination of the ethos of modern science is only a limited introduction to a larger problem: the comparative study of the institutional
structure of science. Although detailed monographs assembling the needed
comparative materials are few and scattered, they provide some basis for
the provisional assumption that "science is afforded opportunity for development in a democratic order which is integrated with the ethos of science." This is not to say that the pursuit of science is confined to democracies.4 The most diverse social structures have provided some measure of
support to science. We have only to remember that the Accademia del
Cimento was sponsored by two Medicis; that Charles II claims historical
attention for his grant of a charter to the Royal Society of London and his
sponsorship of the Greenwich Observatory; that the Academie des Sciences
was founded under the auspices of Louis XIV, on the advice of Colbert;
that urged into acquiescence by Leibniz, Frederick I endowed the Berlin
Academy, and that the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences was instituted

Science is a deceptively inclusive word which refers to a variety of distinct though interrelated items. It is commonly used to denote (1) a set
of characteristic methods by means of which knowledge is certified; (2) a
stock of accumulated knowledge stemming from the application of these
methods; (3) a set of cultural values and mores governing the activities
termed scientific; or (4) any combination of the foregoing. We are here
concerned in a preliminary fashion with the cultural structure of science,
that is, with one limited aspect of science as an institution. Thus, we shall
consider, not the methods of science, but the mores with which they are
hedged about. To be sure, methodological canons are often both technical
expedients and moral compulsives, but it is solely the latter which is our
concern here. This is an essay in the sociology of science, not an excursion
in methodology. Similarly, we shall not deal with the substantive findings
of sciences (hypotheses, uniformities, laws), except as these are pertinent to
standardized social sentiments toward science. This is not an adventure in
polymathy.

by Peter the Great (to refute the view that Russians are barbarians). But
such historical facts do not imply a random association of science and
social structure. There is the further question of the ratio of scientific
achievement to scientific potentialities. Science develops in various social

f
t

The Ethos of Science

The ethos of science is that affectivelytoned complex of values and

1. Since this was written in 1942, it is evident that the explosion at Hiroshima
has jarred many more scientists into an awareness of the social consequences of their
work.

269

,
t

}<

,.'
1

2. On the conceptof ethos,seeWilliamGrahamSumner,Folkways(Boston:Ginn,

1906), pp. 36 if.; Hans Speier,"The SocialDeterminationof Ideas," SocialResearch
5 (1938): 196if.; Max Scheler,Schriftenaus dem Nachlass(Berlin, 1933), 1:22562. Albert Bayet,in his book on the subject,soon abandonsdescriptionand ana.lysis
for homily;see his La moralede la science(Paris, 1931).
3. As Bayet remarks: "Cette morale [de la science]n'a pas eu ses theoriciens,
mais elle a eu ses artisans.Elle n'a pas exprimeson ideal, mais elle l'a servi: it est
impliquedansl'existencememede la science"(La moralede la science,p. 43).
4. Tocquevillewent further: "The future will prove whether these passions [for
science],at onceso rare and so productive,comeinto beingand into growthas easily
in the midstof democraticas in aristocraticcommunities.For myself,I confessthat
I am slow to believe it" (Democracyin America [New York, 1898],2: 51). See
another readingof the evidence:"It is impossibleto establisha simplecausal relationshipbetweendemocracyand scienceand to state that democraticsocietyalone
can furnish the soil suited for the developmentof science.It cannot be a mere
coincidence,however,that science actually has flourishedin democraticperiods"
(Henry E. Sigerist,"Scienceand Democracy,"Scienceand Society 2 [1938]:291).

\270

Th.e Normative Structure of Science

structur~s, to, be sure, but which provide al1 institutiol1al COl1textfqr the
tullest measure ot development?
The institutional goal ot science is the extension of certified knowledge.
The technical methods employed toward this end provide the r~levant
definition of knowledge; empirically confirmed and logically consistent
statements ot, regularities (which are, in effect, predictions). The institutional imperatives. (mores) derive from the goal and the methods. Th~
entire structure of technical and mpral norms implements the final objectiye. The technipal no.rm of empirical evidence, adequate and reliable,
is a prerequisite for sustained' true prediction; the technical norm of
logical consistency, a prerequisite for systematic and valid prediction.
The . mor~s of science possess a methodologic rationale but they are
binding, not only because ~hey are procedurally efficient, put because they
are believed right and good. They are moral as well as technical pres~riptions.
Four sets of institutional imperatives-universalis~,
communism, disin..
terestedness, organized skepticism-are 'taken to cpmprise the ethos of
modem science.

Universalism,
Universalism5 finds immediate expression in the canon that truth-claims,
whatever their source, are' to be subjected to preestablished impersonal
criteria: consonant with observation and with previously confirmed knowledge. The acceptance or rejection of claims entering the lists of science is
not to depend on the personal or social attributes of their protagonist; his
race, nationality, religion"class, and personal qualities are as such irrelevant. Objectivity precludes particularism. The circumstance that scientifically verified formulations refer in.that specific sense to objective sequences
and correlations militates against all efforts to impose particularisti~ criteria
of validity. The Haber process' cannot be invalidated by a Nuremberg
decree nor can an Anglophobe repeal the law of gravitation. The chauvinist
may expunge the names of alien scientists from historical textbooks but
their formulations.r~main indispensable to science. and technology. How..
ever echt-deutsch or. hundred-percent Amyrican the final increment, some
aliens are accessories before the fact of every new scientific advance. The
imperative of universalism is rpoted deep in the iInpersonal c~aracter of
science.
5. For a basic analysis of universalism in social rela~ions, see Talcott Parsons,
The Social System (New York: Free Press, 1951). For an expression of the belief that
"science is wholly independent of national boundaries and races and creeds," see the
resolution of the Council of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, Science 87 (1938): 10; also, "The Advancement of Science and Society:
Proposed World Association," Nature 141 (1938): 169.

The Normative Structure of Science

271

However, the institu~n

of science is part of a larger social struoture
with which it is not always integrated. When the larger culture opposes
universalism, the etbos of science is subjected to serious strain. Ethno.s;entrism is not compatible with universalism. Particularly in times of international conflict, when the dominant definition 'Of the situation is such as
to emphasize national loyalties, the man of science is subjected to the
conflicting imperatives of scientific universalism and of ethnocentric particularism.6 The structure of the situation in which he finds himself determines the social role that is called into play. The man of science may be
converted into a man of war--and
act accordingly. Thus, in 1914 the
manifesto of ninety-three German scientists and scholars-among
them,
Baeyer, Brentano,
Ehrlich, Haber, Eduard Meyer, Ostwald, Planck,
Schmoller, and Wassermann-unloosed
a polemic in which German,
French, and English men arrayed their political selves in the garb of scientists. Dispassionate scientists impugned "enemy" contributions, charging nationalistic bias, log-rolling, intellectual dishonesty, incompetence, and lack
of creative capacity.7 Yet this very deviation from the norm of universalism
actually presupposed the legitimacy of the norm. For nationalistic bias is
opprobrious only if judged in terms of the standard of universalism; within
another institutional context, it is redefined as a virtue, patriotism. Thus
in the process of condemning thf?ir violation, the mores are reaffirmed.
6. This stands as written in 1942. By 1948, the political leaders of Soviet Russia
strengthened their emphasis on Russian nationalism and began to insist on the
"national" character of science. Thus, in an .editorial, "Against the Bourgeois Ideology
of Cosmopolitanism," Voprosy filosofii, no. 2 (1948), as translated in the Current
Digest of the Soviet Press 1, no. 1 (1 February 1949): 9: "Only a cosmopolitan
without a homeland, profoundly insensible to the actual fortunes of science, could
deny with contemptuous 'indifference the existence of the many-hued national forms
in which science lives and develops.In place of the actual history of science and the
concrete paths of its development, the cosmopolitan substitutes fabricated concepts
of a kind of supernational, classless science, deprived, as it were, of all the wealth of
national coloration, deprived of the 'living brilliance and specific character of a
people's creative work, and transformed into a sort of disembodied spirit. . ,.
Marxism-Leninism shatters into bits the cosmopolitan fictions concerning supraclass, non-national, 'universal' science, and definitely proves that science, like all. culture in modern society, is national in form and class in content." This view confuses
two distinct issues: first, the cultural context in any given nation or society may predispose scientists to focus on certain problems, to be sensitive to some and not 'other
problems on the frontiers of science. This has long since been observed. But this is
basically different from the second issue: the criteria of validity of claims to scientific
knowledge are not matters of national taste and culture. Sooner or later, competing
claims to validity are settled by universalistic criteria.
7. For an instructive collection of such documents, see Gabriel Pettit and Maurice
Leudet, Les allemands et la science (Paris, 1916). Felix de Dantec, for example,
discovers that both Ehrlich and Weismann have perpetrated typical German frauds
upon the world of science. ("Le bluff de la science allemande.") Pierre Duhem concludes that the "geometric spirit" of German science stifled the "spirit of finesse":
La science allemande (Paris 1915). Hermann Kellermann, Der Krieg del' Geister
(Weimar, 1915) is a spirited counterpart. The conflict persisted into the postwar
period; see Karl Kherkhof, Del' Krieg gegen die Deutsche Wissenschaft (Halle, 1933).

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...
The Normative Structure of Science

The Normative Structure of Science

Even under, counter~pressure, scientists of all nationalities adhered to the

universalistic standard in more direct tenus. The international, impersonal,
virtually anonymous character of science was reaffinned.s (Pasteur: "Le
savant aune patrie, la science n'en a pas.") Denial of the norm was con~
ceived as a breach of faith.

273

exp()qents of a culture which abjures universalistic standards in genl;:ral

feel constrained to pay lip service to this valu\'; in the realm of science.
Universalism is deviously affirmed in theory and suppressed in practice.
h{owever inadequately. it may be put into practice, the ethos of democracy in,cludes universalism as a dominant gJIiding principle. Democratization is tantamount to the progressive elimination of restraints upon the
exercise and development of socially valued capacities. Impersonal criteria
of accomplishment and not fixation of status characterize the open democratic soc,:iety.Insofar as such rl;:straints do, persist, they are viewed as
obstacles in the path of full deroocratization. Thus, insofar as laissez-faire
democracypennits the accumulation of differe.ntial advantages for certain
segments of the population, differentials that are .not bound up with deroonstrated differences in capacity, the democratic process leads to increasing
regulation by political authority. Under changing conditions, new technical
forms of organization must be introduced to preserve and extend equality
of opportunity. The political apparatus may be required to put democratic
values into practice and to maintain universalistic standards.

Universalism finds further expression in the demand that careers be

open to talents. The ration~e is provicieci by the institutional goal. To
restrict scientific careers on grouQds other than lack of competence is to
prejudice the furtherance of knowledge. Free access to scientific pursuits
is a. functional imperative. Expediency,! and morality coincicie. Hence the
anomaly of a Charles II invoking themor,es of $cience to reprove the Royal
Society for their would~be exc,:]usionof John Gra1l1lt,th~ political arithmetician, and his ill$tructions that "if.they foupci any morl;: such tracies~
men, they should be sure to,adroit thero without furtber ;;Ido}'
Here again the ethos of science may not be consistent with that of the
larger society. Scientists may assimilate caste-standards and close their
ranks to those of inf\';rior status, Jrrespec!iv;e of capacity or achieveroent.
But this provokes an unstable situation. Elaborate ideologil;:s,are called
forth to obscure the incompatibility ofcaste-morl;:S and the institutional
goal of .science. Castl;:-inferiors roust be' shown to be inherently incapable
of scientific work, or, at the very least, their contributions roust be systematically devaluated. "It can be adduced from the history of science that
the founders of research in physics, and the great discoverers froro Galile9
and Newton to tbe physical pioneers of ourown..tiroe, \\T,l;:re
almostexc,:lusively,Aryans,predominaqtly of the Nordic race." The modifying phrase,
"almost exclpsively," is. recognized as an insufficient basis for d~pying out~
castes all claims to scientific,:achievement. Hence the ideology is. rounged
out by a conception of "good" and "bad" science: the realistic, pragmatic
science of the Aryaq is opposed to the dogmatic, fonpal science of the
non-Aryan.9 Or, grounds for exclusion. are sought ig the extrascientific
capacity of roen of science 1!Senl;:mjesof the state or church.1OThus, the

"Communism"
"Communism," in the nontechnical and extended sense of common ownership of goods, is a second integral element of the scientific ethos. The
substantive findings of science are a product of social collaboration and
are assigned to the community. They constitute a common heritage in
which the equity of the individual producer is severely limited. An eponymous law or theory does not enter into the exclusive possession of the
discoverer and his heirs, nor do the mores bestow upon them special rights
of use and disposition. Property rights in science are whittled down to a
bare rninimumby the rationale of the cientific ethic. The scientist's claim
to "bis" intellectual "property" is limited to that of recognition .and esteem
which, if the institution functions with a modicum of efficiency, is roughly
commensurate with the significance of the increroents brought to the common fund of knowledge. Eponymy~for example, the Copernican system,
Boyle's law~is thus at once a mnemonic and a commemorative device.
Given such instit~tional emphasis upon recognition and esteem as the
sole property right of th\'; scientist in his discoveries, the concern with
scientific priority becomes a "normal" response. Those controve.rsies over
priority which punctuate the history of modern science are generated by
the institutional accent on originality.l.! There issues ;:tcompetitive cooper1!-

8. See the profession of faith by Professor E. Gley (in Pettit and Leudet, Les
allemandset la science,p. 181): "il ne.peut y avoir une verite allemande,anglaise,
italienne ou japonaise pas plus q\l'une" fran~aise. Et parler de science allemande,

anglaiseou fran~aise,c'est enoncerune propositioncontradictoire'ftl'idee.meme.de

science."Seealso the a.ffirmationsof G~l;lssetand Richet,ibid.
9. JohannesStark, Nature 141 (1938): 772; "PhilippLenard als deutscherNaturforscher," Nationalsoz;alistische Monatshefte 7 (1936): 106-12. This bears compari-

son with Duhem'scontrast between"German"and "French" science.

10. "Wir haben sie ['marxistischenLeugner'] nic~t entfernt als Vert~eter der
Wissenschaft,.sondern alsParteigaenger eine~politischenLehre, die den Umsturz
aller Ordnungenauf ihreFahn~ geschriebenhatte. Und wir mussten hier um so
entschlossenerzugreifen, als ihnen di~ herrschendeIdeologi~einer wertfreien und
voraussetzungslosenWissenschaftein willkommenerSchutz fuer die Fortfueh~ung

11. Newton spoke from hard-won experience when he remarked that "[natural}
philosophy is su~h an impertinently litigious Lady, that a man had as good be engaged in lawsuits; as have to do with her." Robert Hooke, a socially mobile individual
whose rise in status rested solely on his scientific achievements, was notably "litigious."

ihrer Plaene zu sein schien. Nicht wir haben uns an der Wuerde del\ freien Wissen-

schaft vergangen.. ." Bernhard Rust, Das nationalsQz;a/istische

Deutschlandund die
Wissenschaft(Hamburg: HanseatischeVerlagsanstalt,1936), p, 13.

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274

The Normative Structure of Science

The Normative Structure of Science

275

tion. The products of competition are .communized,l:\ and esteem accrues

to the prodJlcer. Nations take up claims to priority,. and fresh entries into
the comtnonwealthof science are tagged with. the names of nationals:
witness the controversy raging over the rival claims, of Newton and Leibniz
to the differential calculus. Butall"thisdoes
not challenge thesta.tus of
scientific knowledge as common property.
The institutional conception of science as part of the public domain is
linked with the. imperative for communication of findings. Secrecy is the
antithesis of this nOrIn; full and open .communic~tion.its enactmentY! The
pressure for diffusion of results is reen~orced by the institutional goal of
advancing the boundaries of knowledge and by the incentive of recognition
which is, of course, contingent upon publication: A scientist who does not
communIcate his important discoveries to th~ scientific fraternity~thus, a
Henry Cavendish ,..'becomesthe target for ambivalent responses. He is
esteemed fQr his talent and, p~rhaps, for his modesty. But, institutionally
considered, his modesty is ser~ouslymisplaced, in view of the mOfal compul,sive for sharing the wealth of science. Layman .though he is, Aldous
Huxley's comment on Cayen.dish is illuminating in this connection: "Our
admiration o~ his genius is tempered by a certain disapproyal; we feel that
sucll a man is selfish and anti-social." The epithets are particularly instructive for they imply thewiolation of a ,definite institutional imperative. .Even
though it .serves no ulterior motive, the suppresion of sci~ntific discovery
is cOlldemned.
The communal character of science is further reflected in the recognition
by scientists of their dependence upon a cultural. heritag~ to which they
lay no differential claims. Newtop's remark ,.."'If1 have s~en farther. it is

by standing on the shoulders of giants" -expresses at once a sense of

indebtedness to the common heritage and a recognition of the essentially
cooperative and selectively cumulative quality of scientific achievement.14
The humility of scientifi(; genius is not simply culturally appropriate but
results from the realization that scientific advance involves the collaboration of past and present generations. It was Carlyle, not Maxwell, who
indulged in a my~popoeic conception of history.
The communism pf the scientific ethos is incompatible with the definition of technology as "private property" in a capitalistic economy. Current
writings on the "frustration of science" reflect this conflict. Patents proclaim exclusive rights of use and, often, nonuse. The suppression of invention denies the rationale of scientific production and diffusion, as may be
seen from the court's decision in the case of U.S. v. American Bell Telephon,e Co.: "The inventor is one who has discovered something of value.
It is his absolute property. He may withhold the knowledge of it from the
public."15 Responses to this cqnflict-situation have varied. As a defensive
measure, some scientists have come to patent their work to ensure its being
made available for public use. Einstein, Millikan, Compton, Langmuir
have taken out patents}6 Scientists have been urged to become promoters
of new ecqnomic enterprises,17 Others seek to resolve the conflict by advocating socialism}8 These proposals-bot;h those which demand economic
returns for scientific discoveries and those which demand a change in the
soc;:ialsystem to let. science get on with the jo~reflect
dicrepancies in
thec.conceptionof intellectual property.

12. Marked by the commercia.lism of.Jhewider ~ociety thoug\I it may be, a pro.fession such as medicine accepts ~cienlificknowledge .as COJIUJ1on
property. See.~. a.
Shryock, "Freedom and Interference in Medicine," The Annals 200 (1938) i 45.
"The lDedicaFprofession. . . has usually frowned upon patents taken out by medical

Science, as is the case with the professions in general, includes disinterestedness as a basic institutional <element. Disinterestedness is not to be

men. '.,- . The regular .profes~io.n has". .

.
law insthe' seventeenth century." Theft; arises

I>isUnteresteCbless

equated with ~truism norinterest~d fiction with egoism. Such equivalences

lDaintained this stand.a.gainst private 1D0nop-

olies ever since the advent of.patent

an alDbiguous situation in which the socialization of medical practice is reje~ted in
circles where. .the socialization of knowledge goes unchallenged.
13. Cf. Bernal, who observes: "T\Ie growth of modern science coincided with a
definite rejection..of the ideal of Jecrecy." Bernal quotes a remaJ;kablepassagefrom
Reaumur (L~A,rtde convertir le forge en acier) in which the moral compulsion for
publishing one'stesearchesis
explicitly related to other elelDents in the ethos of
sciepce. For example, ~'il y eflt gens qqi. trouverent etrangeque j'eusse publie des
secrets, qui ne deyoient pas stre reveles . . . est~ilbien sur que nos .decouvertes soient si
fOrl a nous que Ie Public n'y ait pas droit, qu'elles ne lui appartiennent pas en quel~ue
sorte? . . resterait il bien des circonstances, ou nous soions absolument. Maitres' de
nos decouvertes? . .. Nous nous devons premierement a notre Patrie,'mais nous nous
devons aussi au rest du monde; ceux qui travaillent pour' perfectionner les Sciences
et les Arts, doivent meme Se regarder commes les citoyens du monde entier" (J. D.
Bernal, The Social Function ()f Science [New York: Macmillan, 1939] pp. 150-51).

14. It is of some interest that Newton's aphorism is a standardized p!uase which

had found repeated expression from atleast the twelfth century. It would appear that
the dependence of discovery and invention on the existing. cultural base had been
noted some time before the formulations of modem sociologists. See Isis 24 (l9~5):
107~9; 25 (1938): 451-52.
15. 167 U. S. 224 (1897), cited by B. J. Stem, "Restraints upon the Utilization of
Inventions," The Annals 200 (1938): 21. For an extended discussion, cf. Stem's
further studies cited'therein, also Walton Hamilton. Patents and Free Enterprise,
Temporary National Economic Committee Monograph no. 3L(1941).
16. Hamilton, Patents andpree.Enterprise, p. 1$4; ~. Robin, L'oeuvre scientifique:
sa protection-juridique (Paris, 1928).
17. Vanneyar Bush, "Trends in Etlgineering Research," Sigma Xi Quarterly 22
(1934): 49.
.
18. Bernal, The. Social Function of Science, pp. 155ft.

276

The Normative Structure of Science

confuse im>titutional and motivational levels of analysis.19 A passion for

knowledge, idle curiosity, altruisti.c concern with the benefit to humanity,
and a host of. other special motives have been attributed to the scientist.
The quest for distinctive motives appears to have been misdirected. It is
rather a distinctive pattern of institutional control of a wide range of motives which characterizes the behavior of scientists. For once the institution
enjoins disinterested activity, it is to the interest of scientists to conform
on pain of sanctions and, insofar as the norm has been internalized, on
pain of. psychological conflict.
The virtual absence of fraud in the annals of science, which appears
exceptional when compared with the record,. of other spheres of activity,
has at times been attributed to the personal qualities of scientists. By implication,scientists are recruited from the ranks of. those who exhibit an
unusual degree of moral integrity. There is, in fact, no satisfactory evidence
that sucb is the case; a more plausible explanation maybe found in certain
distinctive cbaracteristics of science itself. Involving as it does the verifiability of results, scientific research is under the exacting scrutiny of fellow
experts. Otherwise put-,--and q.oubtless the observation can be interpreted
as lese majesty-,--the activities of scieqtists are subject to rigorous policing,
to a degree perhaps unparalleled in any other field of activity. The demand
for disinterestedness has a firm basis in the public and testable character
of science ,and this circumstance; it may be supposed, bas contributed to
the integrity of men of science. Tbere is competition in the realm of science, competition thatis .intensified by the emphasis on priority as acri",
terion of achievement, and under competitive conditions tbere may well
be generated incentives for eclipsing rivals by illicit means. But such impulses can find scant opportunity for expression in the field of scientific
research. Cultism, informal clique~, prolific but trivial publications these
and other techniques may be used for self-aggrandizement.2o But, .in geu."
eral,spuriolls claims appear to pe negligible and ineff~ctive. The translation of the norm of disinterestedness into practice is effectively supported
by the ultimate accountability of scientists to tileir cQmpeers. The dictates
of socialized sentiment. and of expediency largely<.coiqcide,a situation
conducive to institutional stability.
In this connection, the field of science differs somewhat from that of
other professions. The. scientist does not stand vis-a.-vis a lay clientele in
the same fashion as do the physici~n and lawyer, for example. The possi19. Talcott Parsons, "The Professions and Social Structure," Social Forces 17
(1939): 458-59; cf. George Sarton, The History of Science and the New Humani~m
(New York, 1931), p. 130 if. The distinction between institutional compulsives and
motives is .akey, though largely implicit, conception of Marxist sociology,
20. Seelhe account of Logan Wilson, The Academic Man (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1941), p. 201 if.

The Normative Structure of Science

277

bility of exploiting the credulity, ignorance, and dependence of the laymall

is thus considerably reduced. Fraud, chicane, and irresponsible claims
(quackery) are even less likely than among the "service" professions. To
the extent that the scientist-layman relation does become paramount, there
develop incentives for evading the mores of science. The abuse of ex:e~rt
authority and the creation of pseudo-sciences are called into play when the
structure of control exercised by qualified compeers is rendered inefiectua1,21
It is probable that the reputability of science and its lofty ethical status
in the estimate of the layman is in no small measure due to technological
achievements.22 Every new technology bears witness to the integrity of the
scientist. Science realizes its claims. However, its authority can be and is
appropriated for interested purposes, precisely because the laity is often
in no position to distinguish spurious from genuine claims to such authority. The presumably scientific pronouncements of totalitarian spokesmen
on race or economy or history are for the uninstructed laity of the same
order as newspaper reports of an expanding universe or wave mechanics.
In both instances, they cannot be checked by the man-in-the-street and in
both .instances, they may run counter to common sense. If anything, the
myths will seem more plausible and are certainly more comprehensible
to the general public than accredited scientific theories, since they are
closer to common-sense experience and to cultural bias. Partly as a result
of scientific achievements, therefore, the population at large becomes susceptible to new mysticisms expressed in apparently scientific terms. The
borrowed authority of science bestows prestige on the unscientific doctrine.
Organized Skepticism
As we have seen in the preceding chapter, organized skepticism is variously interrelated with the other elements of the scientific ethos. It is both
a methodological and an institutional mandate. The temporary suspension
of judgment and the detached scrutiny of beliefs in terms of empirical and
logical criteria have periodically involved science in conflict with other
institutions. Science which asks questions of fact, including potentialities,
concerning every aspect of nature and society may come into conflict with
other attitudes toward these same data which have been crystallized and
often ritualized by other institutions. The scientific investigator does not
preserve the .cleavage between the sacred and the profane, between that
21. Cf. R. A. Brady, The Sprit and Structure of German Fascism (New York:
Viking, 1937), chap. 2; Martin Gardner, In the Name of Science (New York:
Putnam's, 1953).
22. Francis Bacon set forth one of the early and most succinct statements of this
popular pragmatism: "Now these two directions-the one active, the other contemplative-are one and the same thing; and what in operation is most useful, that in
knowledge is most true" (Novum Qrganum; book 2, aphorism 4).

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The Normative Structure of Science

which requires uncritical respect and that which can be objectively analyzed.
As we have noted, this appears to be the source of revolts against the
so-called intrusion of sciellce into other !>pheres.Such resistance on the
part of organized religion has become less significant as compared with
that of economic and political groups. The opposition may exist quite
apart from the introduction of specific scientific discoveries which appear
to invalidate particular dogmas of church, economy, or 'state. It is rather
a diffuse, frequently vague, apprehension that skepticism threatens the
current distribution of power. Conflict becomes accentuated whenever
science extends its research to new areas toward which there are institutionalized attitudes or whenever other institutions extend their control over
scil:mce. In modern totalitarian society, anti-rationalism and the centralization of institutional control both serve to limit the scope provided for
scientific activity.

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