In hmolscience, S. Barry Barnes (1943-) is a Scottish-born English sociologist noted for the following 1998 statement to American solid-state physicist David Mermin in regards to whether he might be into astrology, exchanged amid their so-called sociology of science debates or wars: [1]
“The belief state of an obscure lump of molecules wandering around a remote corner of England is of no importance whatsoever epistemologically speaking.”
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References
1. (a) Barnes, Barry. (1998). “Oversimplification and the Desire for Truth: Response to Mermin” (abs) (pg. 637), Social Studies of Science, 28:636-40.
(b) Barnes, Barry, Bloor, David and Henry, John. (1996). Scientific Knowledge: A Sociological Analysis. University of Chicago Press.
(c) Mermin, N. David. (2001). “Conversing Seriously with Sociologists” (pg. 94), in: The One Culture? A Conversation about Science (editors: Jay Labinger and Harry Collins) (§7:83-98). University of Chicago Press.
(d) David Mermin – Wikipedia.
External links
● S. Barry Barnes – Wikipedia.
