Abstract
The aim of the article is to compare different perspectives of the relationship between actor and social structure. Three theories from the field of sociology and philosophy of science are presented.
A scientist's interest in a particular scientific field is chosen as the basic unit of the analysis. In the article, appropriate theories of Robert Merton, Pierre Bourdieu and Thomas Kuhn are compared.
Finally, these theories are applied to the case of Nicholas of Cusa and his discovery of weighing as a scientific method. Despite different aspects of the social reality are being considered as theoretically important, the case study supports a claim that discussed theoriesare complementary.
The aim of sucha pplication is to reveal the limits and contributions of compared theories to the research of science.