The Discourse Construction Of The Science World

What is the nature of science discourse? What is the relationship between science discourse and the science world? Can science discourse be considered as the reliable information which reflects the nature of the science world truly? Can the discourse of sociologists be considered as the true information of the science world? The purpose of Mulkay's discourse analysis(DA) is to answer these questions.Mulkay's DA criticizes and rethinks the conventional science discourse analytical mode and some SSK researchers' view on science discourse.Mulkay treats science discourse as "the analytical issue" rather than the reliable information which can be used in the construction of the sociological theories.From the angle of subject,text, norm,history and communication,Mulkay deconstructs the conventional concept that we can get the real nature of the science world with the discourse of scientists.And at the same time,Mulkay reflexively applies his conclusion,that the discourse of the scientists is variable,to his own analysis,and realizes his anti-realism ambition by developing a "New Literary Forms".Mulkay's DA carries on the basic rules of the early stage SSK,but objectively deconstructs the legitimacy of those researchers' analytical mode,Mulkay's DA becomes a power of reflection and criticism inside SSK,moreover,his "New Literary Forms" deconstructs the early stage SSK researchers' realism view directly.Therefore, to analyze Mulkay's DA is very helpful for us to understand the nature,the limit,and the future of SSK.The first chapter of this thesis mainly introduces the conventional analytical mode of science discourse including structural functionalism analytical mode of Merton, scientometrics analytical mode of Price,Ziman's view of the articles of scientists,the conventional literary criticismers' view about science articles.Then an analysis will be taken on the character of the conventional analytical mode of science discourse:the conventional analytical mode treats the science discourse as the bystander of the science world,so it never concerns the sociological analysis of the concrete content of the science discourse.The second chapter is mainly about some SSK researchers' view of science discourse including Shapin,Collins,Woolgar and Cetina's.The paper concludes two characters of their analytical modes:first,their analysis tries to sociologically deconstruct the formal dicourse content from the cognitive angle,they do not treat the formal discourse as the real description of the science world;second,their analytical mode is limited in the mode of structural functionalism,and they treat the infromal discourse as the basis of their sociological theories when they break the realism of formal discourse.The third chapter mainly introduces the connotation of Mulkay's DA and its necessity,and also analyzes the main characters of this theory.From the angle of subject,text,norm,history and communication,the fourth chapter tells us in detail how Mulkay rhetoricly analyzes the scientists' formal discourse. Mulkay treats the science discourse as the "producer" of the science world.The fitch chapter mainly analyzes the reflexivity problem that Mulkay's DA faces and discusses how Mulkay resolves it.Mulkay brings forward the concept "New Literary Forms",and realizes his antirealism ambition by creating new writing forms constantly.This chapter analyzes some kinds of New Literary Forms such as the self-challenging writing mode,the dialogue writing form and mimicry.The sixth chapter mainly analyzes the position that Mulkay's DA takes in the academic world.First,the paper analyzes the uniqueness of Mulkay's DA by comparing it with other analysis mode,for example,the linguistics,the formal defensive theories and other deconstrution theories.Then the paper analyzes the position and function of Mulkay's DA in the development of SSK,that is,Mulkay's DA reflects the core spirit of SSK,they are consistent in epistemology,but in the aspact of methodology,DA is the deconstructive power to early stage SSK.At the end of this chapter,the paper analyzes the contribution that DA has made to sociology.The seventh chapter reviews and reflects Mulkay's DA.The first section of this chapter analyzes the positive appraisal of the academic world to Mulkay's DA,and the epistemological and methodological value of Mulkay's DA.The second section talks about the limitation of Mulkay's DA,which concludes asymmetric facets:first,Mulkay replaces the rational factors completely with rhetoric factors;second,Mulkay ignores the richness of scientists' practice by limiting himself in discourse angle.The paper produces a tentative resolvement:the general symmetry.According to the spirit of general symmetry,the paper introduces "dialectical mode",and then points out that the proper way to analyze science discourse is to put it in the horizon of scientists' practice.The eighth chapter is mainly about the relationship between New Literary Forms and post-modern view of text,and also talks about the influence of New Literary Forms to modern reading and writing.The paper firstly analyzes the similarity between New Literary Forms and post-modern view of text and then analyzes the differences between them.At last the paper analyzes the positive influences of the New Literary Forms to modern reading and writing and the usage limit of it.The ninth chapter mainly introduces the reflexivity problem that SSK faces and the tentative solution that the New Literary Forms provides.The paper tentatively points out the concept "constructive reflexivity" in the hope of giving a positive proposal to the future development of SSK.The paper believes that SSK should head for the direction of "respecting the nature",and at the same time SSK should establish an open, interactive and mutural understanding relationship with other disciplines which make science as its subject matter.The tenth chapter provides "the new knowledge view of belonging-to-human ".This chapter analyzes the plight of contemporary knowledge view,and makes some advices on how to get rid of this plight.