Remember the strong program?

Before arriving at the Science Studies Unit in 1967 I took a degree in experimental psychology at Cambridge. Richard Gregory and Donald Broadbent were just two of the fine group of experimentalists Cambridge housed at that time. My exposure to the Psychological Laboratory and the Applied Psychology Unit was intellectually exciting, and I acquired a great respect for the discipline. It provided me with an orientation I have never lost. I want to make use of that orientation now, as a way of introducing a discussion of the sociology of knowledge and, in particular, of the so-called strong program.1 This may seem an odd procedure because it straddles disciplinary boundaries, but I hope I can show that such worries are misplaced.