What is Science?

The social study of science begins with the recognition that science is a highly variable animal. As is well known, there are numerous versions of what science is, of what counts as being scientific. Again, it is testimony to the widespread influence and penetration of ideas about science that competing claims as to what science comprises can be found in many different areas of life. For example, we thus find acrimonious debates about the scientific status of creationism; proclamations by the Secretary of State for Education that the premier funding body for social science research is no longer worthy of the epithet: ‘science’ [ 1 ]; and so on. We begin by distinguishing two major responses - philosophical and historical - to the question of what counts as science.