Introduction

Scientific controversies, which may provisionally be described as organized debates whose aim is to establish or verify our knowledge of the world, fall within the competencies of specialties in the field of sociology. The sociology of science is a specialty stemming from the sociology of knowledge, and in particular the Wissensoziologie of Max Scheler and Karl Mannheim. Formulated at the end of the 1930s by Robert K. Merton, for many decades the sociology of science continued to reflect the original impulse given to it by its founder. The specificity means that one can no longer place on an equal footing such differing forms of conflict as a private dispute, a commercial rivalry, a political debate, and a scientific controversy. Scientific factors, psychological considerations, and other elements can help to explain the intensity of a particular controversy. E. McMullin has proposed that, in a scientific debate, distinctions can be made based on the object under dispute.