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The sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) is one of the profession's most marginal specialties, yet its objects of inquiry, its modes of inquiry, and certain of its findings have very substantial bearing upon the nature and scope of the sociological enterprise in general. While traditional sociology of knowledge asked how, and to what extent, "social factors" might influence the products of the mind, SSK sought to show that knowledge was constitutively social, and in so doing, it raised fundamental questions about taken-for-granted divisions between "social versus cognitive, or natural, factors." This piece traces the historical development of the sociology of scientific knowledge and its relations with sociology and cultural inquiry as a whole. It identifies dominant "localist" sensibilities in SSK and the consequent problem it now confronts of how scientific knowledge travels. Finally, it describes several strands of criticism of SSK that have emerged from among its own practitioners, noting the ways in which some criticisms can be seen as a revival of old aspirations toward privileged meta-languages.

Towards the end of Paul Scott'sA Division of the Spoils, the final novel ofThe Raj Quartet, and in the television series as well, Indian people make an appearance and commit acts of unmotivated and horrible violence. The British heroine comments, "Such a damn, bloody, senseless mess … the mess therajhad never been able to sort out." Making sense, sorting out, was supposed to be the special vocation of British rule, yet here were all the seething, primordial conflicts rising to the surface again in the Hindu versus Muslim partition of India in 1947.

What characterizes the ideal critical thinker? Within the critical thinking movement, it is sometimes suggested that the ideal critical thinker is "constructivist knower" who integrates objective and critical ways of knowing with subjective and creative ways of knowing. In this article it is argued that descriptions of constructivist knowers are typically consisent with two very different approaches to epistemology: one approach leads to an extreme relativism which precludes shared standards of rationality; the other approach recognizes that the individual can integrate rational and emotive thought in a way that permits common standards of rationality. This article also suggests that thinkers identified as model or exemplary constructivist knowers display critical and creative thinking in a way that underscores the existence of common standards of judgment and rationality.