Popper: Believes science is an open belief system. He believes science is governed by the principle of falsification. This is where scientists set out to try to falsify existing theories, deliberately seeking evidence to disprove them. In this way it allows the scientific understanding of the world to grow.
Merton: Believes that science too is an open system but argues that science can only thrive as a major social institution if it receives support from other institutions and values. He also argues that science as an institution needs an ‘ethos’ or set of norms that make scientists act in ways that serve the goal of increasing scientific knowledge, these are known as the CUDOS norms. (Communism: scientific knowledge must be shared; Universalism: the truth/falsity of the knowledge is judged by a set of objective criteria not the race/gender ext. of the scientist; Disinterestedness: committed to discovering knowledge for the fun of it; Organised scepticism: nothing is ever 100% correct.)
Horeton: Sees science as an open belief system where knowledge claims are open to criticism and can be disproved by testing.
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