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Knowledge and Social Imagery A paradigm-shifting book, Bloor proposes that scholars need to abandon what he calls a teleological history of science. This means that man judges historical causality based on current scientific knowledge.
With this line of thinking, this reduces the history of science into either a chronicling of scientific/natural agency (which historians are not equipped to do) or a history of error. To prevent this, Bloor suggests that historical events are treated symmetrically meaning the same techniques of analysis for scientific findings that we now think are false be applied to those that we now think are true. This provides a modality for a thoroughly historical account of scientific change. -
Strong Programme
As a reaction to the sociology of science considered the weak programme, Bloor went on to outline his own retort, the Strong Programme. A scientific (i.e. sociological) theory of knowledge should adhere to four principles: Causality, Impartiality, Symmetry, and Reflexivity. This world view led to the establishment of Science, Technology, and Society departments across the United States in the 1960’s and 70’s. This remains a fascinating and multidisciplinary field of inquiry today. -
Relativism, rationalism and the sociology of knowledge
Barnes and Bloor argue the distinction between validity and credibility. The rationalist would emphasize the difference between ‘what are taken to be reasons’ and ‘what really are reasons.' Symmetry was originally proposed as a methodological policy by David Bloor and alongside Barry Barnes, also proposed the "equivalence postulate" in an essay promoting what they called the "Strong Programme" in the sociology of knowledge. -
The Enigma of the Aerofoil Bloor also speaks as to why the British, even after discovering the shortcomings of their own theory, remained resistant to the German circulation theory for more than a decade.
In The Enigma of the Aerofoil, David Bloor delved deeper into a forgotten aspect of this important period in the history of aviation. Bloor draws his findings from papers by the participants (classified technical reports, meeting minutes, and personal correspondences never before published). His investigations reveal the impact that the divergent mathematical traditions of Cambridge and Göttingen had on this great debate.
