ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the scientific controversies that allow people to glimpse results that are quite different from those reached by sociological relativism and constructivism. The sociological dimension depends more on the form that the debate may assume, the more or less conscious choice that the actors may make to engage in a confrontation rather than to accept the coexistence of rival hypotheses or to support one of them. From the perspective of classical sociology, it can be assumed that the participation at a time t of an agent in a given action requires a configuration that is favourable to his interests and values. This provides, it may be said, the motive for the appearance of stable configurations, which leads to examine the specific structure of the interests and values that could intervene in a scientific controversy. The priority of cognitive values and cognitive interests is sufficient to differentiate scientific controversies from other forms of conflict.