Models of Language Learning and their Implications for Social Constructionist Analyses of Scientific Belief

Abstract

Recent presentations of the social-constructionist and social-relativist analyses of scientific belief have correctly invoked the emphasis on the underjustification of both "fact"-establishment and theory choice in post-positivist philosophies of science. Accompanying this is an emphasis on the role of language in forming the categories and causal scenarios of perception and interpretation, for ordinary perception, folk-classifications, and science. Examples of the latter can be found in: Knorr-Cetina & Mulkay (1983), Barnes (1983), Bloor (1983), and Collins (1985).