Science, Values, And Objectivity

by Machamer, Peter K.; Wolters, Gereon

• ISBN13: 9780822942375
• ISBN10: 0822942372
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-12-30
• Publisher: Univ of Pittsburgh Pr

Summary

Few people, if any, still argue that science in all its aspects is a value-free endeavor. At the very least, values affect decisions about the choice of research problems to investigate and the uses to which the results of research are applied. But what about the actual doing of science? As Science, Values, and Objectivityreveals, the connections and interactions between values and science are quite complex. The essays in this volume identify the crucial values that play a role in science, distinguish some of the criteria that can be used for value identification, and elaborate the conditions for warranting certain values as necessary or central to the very activity of scientific research. Recently, social constructivists have taken the presence of values within the scientific model to question the basis of objectivity. However, the contributors to Science, Values, and Objectivity recognize that such acknowledgment of the role of values does not negate the fact that objects exist in the world. Objects have the power to constrain our actions and thoughts, though the norms for these thoughts lie in the public, social world. Values may be decried or defended, praised or blamed, but in a world that strives for a modicum of reason, values, too, must be reasoned. Critical assessment of the values that play a role in scientific research is as much a part of doing good science as interpreting data.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction Science, Values, and Objectivity	1	(189)
Peter Machamer and Gereon Wolters
1 The Epistemic, the Cognitive, and the Social	14	(10)
Larry Laudan
2 Is There a Significant Distinction between Cognitive and Social Values?	24	(28)
Hugh Lacey
3 Epistemic and Nonepistemic Values in Science	52	(26)
Mauro Dorato
4 The Social in the Epistemic	78	(12)
Peter Machamer and Lisa Osbeck
5 Transcending the Discourse of Social Influences	90	(22)
Barry Barnes
6 Between Science and Vaiues	112	(15)
Peter Weingart
7 How Values Can Be Good for Science	127	(16)
Helen E. Longinc
8 "Social" Objectivity and the Objectivity of Value	143	(29)
Tara Smith
9 On the Objectivity of Facts, Beliefs, and Values	172	(18)
Wolfgang Spohn
10 A Case Study in Objectifying Values in Science	190	(30)
Mark A. Bedau
11 Border Skirmishes between Science and Policy
Autonomy, Responsibility, and Values	220	(36)
Heather E. Douglas
12 The Prescribed and Proscribed Values in Science Policy	245	(11)
Sandra D. Mitchell
13 Bioethics
Its Foundation and Application in Political Decision Making	256	(19)
Felix Thiele
14 Knowledge and Control
On the Bearing of Epistemic Values in Applied Science	275	(36)
Martin Carrier
15 Law and Science	294	(17)
Eric Hilgendorf
Index	311