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Using Material from Item a and Elsewhere, Assess the View That Science Is the Dominant Metanarrative in Society Today. (18 Marks)

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Many sociologists see science as a product of the process of rationalism, which is the view that knowledge must be based on reason or evidence. With this, some sociologists such as secularisation theorists claim that science has undermined religion by the way we think and see the world. Therefore due to these reason it has overtaken other metanarratives including political philosophies (such as socialism or conservatism), or nationalities (Pakistani, Mauritian or Nigerian for example) and has ultimately become the most dominant metanarrative in society today.
In previous time other metanarratives mentioned above has become important as society developed. But during the period of enlightenment and in today's society many people have moved away from their faith based beliefs, ideologies and nationalities and are seeking the truth that have evidence and validity in its findings and thus in this case science provides these answers. This links into propers debate that science is an 'open' belief system where every scientist theory is open for scrutiny, criticism and testing by others. Science is ruled by the principle of ‘falsification’. This is whereby scientists set out to try and falsify existing theories and because of this is essentially creates the truth. For example; for centuries it was believed that the sun revolved around the earth until Copernicus demonstrated this was false. Merton agreed with Popper and believed that science has a set of norms that makes science more influential in society today; he calls them ‘CUDOS’ ( which stand for communism, universalism, disinterestedness and organized skepticism).These ‘CUDOS’ norms give science an advantage over other metanarratives as only truthful and factual theories are produced. To add to this, metanarratives such as religion may seem less influential in society today as it’s seen as a closed belief

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