The Challenge of the Strong Programme. The strong programme in sociology of knowledge is a programme; it is a format for research and a philosophical manifesto. If it did not provide a reasoned context for doing research it would be of no great interest to sociologists; if it professed no epistemology it would be of little interest to philosophers. Philosophers of science (in growing numbers, it seems) fmd a challenge in the tenets of the strong programme. That challenge has largely to do with the fact that the strong programme offers an alternative epistemology in the name of scientifiic sociology, and many philosophers fimd it an alternative sadly lacking in philosophical justifiication.