Ideology and science

Science as an open belief system:

• Popper - science is based on falsification, but scientific knowledge is not absolute truth. It can always be tested and potentially falsified.
• Merton - CUDOS norms: Communism. Universalism. Disinterestedness. Organised Scepticism.

Closed belief systems:

• Horton - religion is a closed system, it makes knowledge claims that cannot be overturned.
• Kuhn - scientific paradigms can be seen as a form of closed belief system. scientists who challenge the paradigm are likely to be ridiculed. 

The sociology of scientific knowledge:

• Interpretivists argue scientific knowledge is socially constructed. What scientists study in the lab is not the 'natural' world. A scientific fact is simply a shared, socially constructed belief.

Marxism, Feminism and Postmodernism:

• Science serves the interests of dominant groups. Scientific claims can't have 'the truth'.

Marxism and ideology:

• RC ideology (hegemony) prevents class consciousness developing by legitimating capitalism.
• Gramsci - ultimately the WC will overthrow capitalism, led by a party of class-conscious 'organic intellectuals'.

The ideology of nationalism:

• Anderson - A nation is only an 'imagine community' but nationalism can bind millions of strangers together and create a sense of common purpose.
• Marxists see nationalism as a false consciousness that prevents the overthrow of Capitalism by dividing the international WC.
• Functionalists see nationalism as a secular civil religion that integrates everyone into a single community.
• Gellner - Nationalism is a key feature of modernity, binds together the loose-knit communities created by industrialisation.

Feminism and ideology:

• Feminists see gender inequality as legitimated by patriarchal ideology.