Abstract

MARTINI, María. The Merton-Shapin relationship from the historiographic debate internalism/externalism. Cinta moebio [online]. 2011, n.42, pp. 288-301. ISSN 0717-554X.  doi: 10.4067/S0717-554X2011000300005.

The aim of this paper is to show that the work of the sociologist of scientific knowledge Steven Shapin is inheriting from the internalism/externalism debate. That inheritance is expressed by the attempts that he makes to break the boundaries of the dichotomies, which were built during the dispute in the disciplinary fields of history of science, sociology of science and sociology of scientific knowledge. We will deal with the issues concerning the relation between Shapin’s work during the nineties and Robert Merton’s work, which was one of the pillars of this debate.

Keywords : history of science; internalism; externalism; disciplinary boundaries; Merton; Shapin.