The apologetic uses of the sociology of sociology The attempted sociological analysis of the history of the social sciences in France in the book Prophets and Patrons by T. Clark employs a sociology of innovation and a sociology of science, a comparative sociology of university systems, a sociology of knowledge, and a sociology of France. The analysis of theoretical assumptions and of explana tory models leads to an underscoring of the functions of reassurance and of auto-justification that they fulfill.