ABSTRACT
A sociologized epistemology runs the risk of collapsing into cognitive relativism. Contrary to much received opinion it is not radical indeterminacy of translation that is the sting of relativism, but the underdetermination of conceptual schemes, both scientific and symbolic. An essential element of theories is instrumental manipulation. Collins formulates the point as follows: “the natural world has a small or nonexistent role in the construction of scientific knowledge”. All the usual connotations of structural identity, or perfect reflection of knowledge have to be dropped”. The implication is that inquiries into the nature of knowledge can only be in the form of a sociological account of how agreement on what people believe is reached, that is, epistemology needs to be sociologized. The notion of indirect realism is introduced as an acknowledgement that “the world out there” exists.
