Robert King Merton

Merton, Robert King (1910– ), U.S. sociologist. His seminal work on the sociology of science produced Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth Century England (1938), expressing the view that English Puritanism helped lead to the modern scientific age. He wrote an analysis of the function of deviant behavior in society (Social Theory and Social Structure, 1949), and was instrumental in developing quantitative (statistical) research methods in sociology.

See also: Sociology.