ABSTRACT
During the last twenty years the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) has emerged as an influential new approach to the study of science. Unlike traditional philosophy of science which often emphasizes issues such as demarcation, appraisal and the logic of scientific theory choice, the sociology of scientific knowledge focuses on the inherently social nature of scientific inquiry. According to the SSK, science is practised in a social context, the products of scientific activity are the results of a social process, and scientific knowledge is socially constructed. Although there are a variety of individual points of view within the general framework of the SSK (and the SSK-inspired work in the history of science) these different perspectives are 'united by a shared refusal of philosophical apriorism coupled with a sensitivity to the social dimensions of science' (Pickering 1992b: 2). In other words: most of what philosophers of science have said about science is irrelevant, and science is fundamentally social.
