by According to Robert K. Merton’s “The Normative Structure of Science,” the instituonalized goal of science is to extend the certification of knowledge. In other words, science has s goal to find as much new information out as possible through experimentation and studies in order to expand upon what we already know. With more certified information our society can operate in a more effeicent manner and ultimately become a better society. Also accroding to the article, there are a set of four institutionalized imperatives, which are universalism, communism, distinterestedness, and organized skeptism which are said to compise the “ethos of sciene” (Merton, 1973). In this blog post, I am aim to analyze why each of these four institutionalized imperatives are so crucial to good science and ultimately the betterment of our society.
The first institutionalized imperative, universalism, means that any prior status of a sceintist should not affect the scientific process in any way and that scientific validity must always go through the same process in order to maintian integriy in the industry. In other words, if a highly esteemed scientist comes up with a radical claim, or any claim for that matter, that scientists work should have to go through the same tough fact checking process that any other sceintist would have to go through. No special treament shall be granted no matter the resume of a scientist, as this would give way for more accomplished scientists to become lazy in their work and thus not produce work of any real meaning. The second institutionalized imperative, communism, refers to the idea that all sceintists should have access to all the information possibly available to them, not allowing for some scientists to withold “secret” infromation. In this way, science can always be working to achieve its maximum potential when it comes to creating new science as anyone conducting research will have access to all prior research in the field. The third institutionalized imperative, distinterestedness is similar to universalism in that its signialing to the scientific community that their individual achievements and work are far less important than improving science as a whole. This allows for egos to be held in check and hopefully allows for more progress to be made and scientists working with a more open mind. The fourth institutionalized imperative, organized skeptcism, is also similar to the first institutionalized imperative as it means that all scientists work should recieve skepticism no matter how successful they have been in the past. As an example, if Steve Jobs had created a new iPhone and no one bothered to check whether or not it was functioning at its maximum capability, the iPhone could have a terrible error that would not only have hurt Steve Jobs and his company Apple, but also would have set the science community back in terms of progress. Thanks to extremmely vaulabe work done by Robert K. Merton, the four institutionalized imperatives: universalism, communism, distinterestedness, and organized skeptism serve as guidelines for how to create good science and are crucial to the betterment of our society.