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David Bloor, Born June 28th 1942.
David Bloor was born June 28th, 1942, in Derby, Derbyshire, England. -
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Life of David Bloor
Here is a video depicting some of the studies of David Bloor with emphasis and explanation of Knowledge and the Strong Programme. https://youtu.be/J5niwyPoMw4 David Bloor is still alive, and teaching today at the University of Edinburgh.
He was awarded the John Desmond Bernal Prize by the Society for Social Studies of Science in 1996 in recognition of his distinguished contributions to the studies of Science. -
University of Edinburgh, and beyond.
Bloor studied at the University of Edinburgh, and became a Professor and main contributor to the Science Studies Unit (developed by David Edge) which was made to “to remedy an ignorance amongst science graduates of major aspects of civilization, such as literature, art, religion and philosophy, and of the strategic issues of science; to bring out the ways in which the development of science has influenced and is influencing, various aspects of human life. (Edge,1966) -
Studying Philosophy (and Psychology!)
Bloor began his studies in the fields of Philosophy and Psychology, but he played a major role in progressing the studies of sociology and technology in science. He began studying at the University of Edinburgh, and obtained his PhD from them in 1972. He was heavily influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Émile Durkheim, and Mary Douglas. -
The Thesis Paper
He was awarded his PhD after writing his thesis on "Speech and the Regulation of Behavior". -
Knowledge and Social Imagery
Bloor wrote "Knowledge and Social Imagery" in 1976, giving his views on scientific knowledge in relation to sociology and the philosophy of science. It was one of the stabilizing factors for his theory and ideals on the "Strong Programme". -
The Strong Programme
The Strong Programme is a reaction against "weak" sociologies of science, having four main components:
Causality: examines the conditions (psychological, social, and cultural) that bring about claims to a certain kind of knowledge.
Impartiality: examines successful as well as unsuccessful knowledge claims.
Symmetry: the same types of explanations are used for successful and unsuccessful knowledge claims alike.
Reflexivity: it must be applicable to sociology itself. -
Wittgenstein and Society.
Bloor agreed with Wittgenstein's theory in regard to a human as an individual versus society itself. Since then, he has published two books on Wittgenstein's philosophy, "Wittgenstein: A Social Theory of Knowledge"(1983) and "Wittgenstein, Rules and Institutions"(1997). These publications have made Professor Bloor one of the leading contributors in science studies. -
Important works.
(1970). "Is the Official Theory of Mind Absurd?". British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.
(1970). "Explanation and Analysis in Strawson's 'Persons'". Australasian Journal of Philosophy.
(1971). "Two Paradigms for Scientific Knowledge?". Science Studies.
(1973). "Wittgenstein and Mannheim on the sociology of mathematics". Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science Part A.
(1981). "The strengths of the strong programme". Philosophy of Social Science. -
Important Works (contd.)
(1982), "Relativism, rationalism and the sociology of knowledge", in Hollis, Martin; Lukes, Steven, Rationality and relativism, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, ISBN 9780262580618.
(1992), "Left and Right Wittgensteinians", in Pickering, Andrew, Science as practice and culture, Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, pp. 266–282, ISBN 9780226668017.
(1996). "Idealism and the sociology of knowledge". Social Studies of Science. -
Books by David Bloor.
(1983). Wittgenstein: a social theory of knowledge. Macmillan and Columbia.
(1991) [1976]. Knowledge and social imagery (2nd ed.). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.
(1996). Scientific knowledge: a sociological analysis. Athlone and Chicago University Press. (With colleagues)
(1997). Wittgenstein: rules and institutions. Routledge.
(2011). The enigma of the aerofoil: rival theories in aerodynamics, 1909-1930. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. -
Antagonist or Contrarian?
Bloor wrote many discussions on Popper and Kuhn, and is a great part of the sociology of scientific knowledge, but he also was heavily opposed to the Actor-Network Theory developed by a scientist named Bruno Latour (which argued that they human and non-humans should be treated in an equivalent manner). This theory was partially developed FROM Bloor's Stong Programme, but Bloor was still against it, even writing a whole article titled "Anti-Latour" (1999)
