A growing number of historians of science have moved away from the positivist tradition that shaped the discipline for much of the twentieth century, under which scientific progress was understood as the gradual accumulation of objective, verifiable facts. In its place, many now adopt a constructivist position, arguing that scientific knowledge is shaped not by nature alone but by the institutional, cultural, and ideological contexts in which it is produced. Historians working within the positivist tradition, the critique holds, typically proceeded as though their own interpretive categories were transparent - as though the questions they asked and the frameworks they applied were neutral tools rather than products of particular intellectual climates. The constructivist program holds that the discipline must become more reflexive: historians of science should openly acknowledge the interpretive commitments they bring to their work, and rather than continuing to produce ever more comprehensive accounts of scientific achievements, they should direct their energies toward examining how earlier historical narratives were shaped by the assumptions of their authors.

The author implies which of the following about historians of science who worked within the positivist tradition?

- A. They recognized that their interpretive frameworks were products of specific intellectual climates
- B. They argued that scientific knowledge was shaped primarily by institutional and cultural pressures
- C. They believed that their analytical categories provided a neutral and objective basis for historical inquiry
- D. They shared a uniform set of ideological commitments that determined the questions they pursued
- E. They acknowledged the need to replace positivist methods with more reflexive approaches



According to the passage, historians of science who have adopted the constructivist position would agree that the discipline should

- A. produce more comprehensive and empirically rigorous accounts of scientific achievements
- B. integrate positivist and constructivist approaches into a unified interpretive methodology
- C. demonstrate that the findings of earlier historians were factually incorrect
- D. examine the assumptions and ideological commitments embedded in earlier historical narratives
- E. focus on identifying which scientific discoveries were shaped by cultural context and which were not