NORMS AND COUNTER-NORMS IN A SELECT GROUP OF THE APOLLO MOON SCIENTISTS: A CASE STUDY OF THE AMBIVALENCE OF SCIENTISTS.

This paper describes a three and a half year study conducted over the course of the Apollo lunar missions with forty -two of me most prestigious scientists who studied the lunar rocks. The paper supports the Merton-E. Barber concept of sociological ambivalence, that social institutions reflect potentially conflicting sets of norms. The paper offers a set of counter-norms for science, arguing that if the norm of universalism is rooted in the impersonal character of science, an opposing counter-norm is rooted in the personal character of science. The paper also argues that not only is sociological ambivalence a characteristic of science, but it seems necessary for the existence and ultimate rationality of science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]