Another Merton wisdom
603, Social Theory and SS, concluding « Science and the Social Order » (1937) :
The prestige which science has acquired within the last three centuries is so great that actions curtailing its scope or repudiating it in part are usually coupled with affirmation of the undisturbed integrity of science or ‘the rebirth of true science’.
(This is Nazi science, soon to be Soviet too. But valid beyond the totalitarian decades.)