Science, Scientists, and Prehistories of SSK in Mid-Twentieth-Century British Literature

ABSTRACT:This article investigates the diverse ways in which midtwentieth-century British writers responded to the proliferation of science and scientists in the traditionally non-scholarly spheres of industry, politics, and society and, in doing so, establishes a series of prehistories to the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK). Authors such as Fred Hoyle, C. P. Snow, D. F. Jones, Michael Moorcock, Daphne du Maurier, and John Wyndham interrogated the notion that science is an impersonal, detached body of knowledge and provided counternarratives to teleological narratives of scientific progress. These novelists sought to: (i) present scientists as diligent and productive in opposition to the platitudes of politicians and dour bureaucrats; (ii) debunk the stereotype that scientists are unemotional and irresponsible in contrast to the instrumental reason of fictional AI; and (iii) acknowledge that science is inseparable from the social context by foregrounding the complexities involved in the dissemination of new discoveries. The article analyses the ways these writers anticipate key concepts in SSK, including the construction of scientific fact, the scientific attitude and limits of the human, and the dissemination, reception, and epistemic authority of science. In doing so, they provide important prehistories to SSK and contribute much-needed sociocultural context to ongoing debates concerning the value of science in society.