Analysis Of Robert K. Merton's The Normative Structure Of Science

In his 1942 writing "The Normative Structure of Science," Robert K Merton outlines the four "Ethos of Science" - principles he believes should always be upheld in order to ensure good scientific practices. These four principles are Universalism, Communism, Disinterestedness, and Organized Skepticism. Universalism is the idea that a scientist should reject all their individual differences in favor of having an understanding, all-considering, objective view on the world. Communism is the idea that all scientific knowledge and progress is shared, and that a scientist should strive to make scientific progress for the greater good and fame rather than capital gain. Disinterestedness means that a scientist should have high moral integrity, putting themselves last and …show more content…
However, there are some shortcomings of "scientific communism," just like there are shortcomings of economic communism. In economic communism, de-incentivizing competition can lead to several negative effects. First, the quality of the products produced will decrease, since manufacturers no longer need to compete for customer attention. Second, extra/overtime productivity can be lost - in a communist system, once you hit your quota you're done, extra productivity beyond your quota does not necessarily lead to extra income like in capitalism. Third, truly remarkable performances don't get the recognition they deserve, since everyone's paychecks are the same, an outstanding businessman or inventor won't get the tremendous cash influx that they deserve under a capitalist system. Let's take these three main arguments against economic communism and compare them to scientific