Abstract

The paper is an attempt toward a systematic presentation of the theoretical standpoint of the “strong programme in the sociology of knowledge”, as delineated by David Bloor and Barry Barnes, after forty years of its functioning in the contemporary philosophical debates. The authoresses’ aim is to assess the programme of the “the Edinburgh School”, its reception and its development as a coherent naturalistic project. She views it as a comprehensive programme aimed to study the human cognition in each and every of its dimensions: individualistic and collective; biological and psychological; sociological and scientific. She claims that despite the unmistakable materialistic assumptions of “the Edinburgh School”, its programme should not be interpreted as a species of a “sociological reductionism”. She also underlines the most important elements of a consistent anti-essentialism inscribed in the theoretical approach of the British sociologists. Various consequences of the Duhem-Quine’s thesis, accepted by the representatives of the strong programme in the sociology of knowledge, are also discussed and analyzed.Key words DAVID BLOOR, BARRY BARNES, SOCIOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE