Science Values and Objectivity (Pitt Konstanz Phil Hist Scienc) - Hardcover

Machamer, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0822942372 ISBN 13: 9780822942375

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004

Synopsis

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 Objectivity reveals, 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 <I>Science, Values, and Objectivity</I> 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.

About this title

About the Author

Peter Machamer is a professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science and associate director of the Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Gereon Wolters is a professor of philosophy and deputy director of the Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Konstanz.

From the Back Cover

"Is there any room for facts in a world of values? How is objectivity to be saved if science is as value-laden as most commentators now seem to agree? The well-chosen selection of essays in this anthology nicely illustrates the diverse ways in which an affirmative answer may be reached to these currently much debated questions."-Ernan McMullin, University of Notre Dame

"Gone are the days when science could be seen as value-free. Now the central questions include: What are the different kinds of values and how do they affect science? Are they subjective or are they somehow rationally justified? Is science better or worse for having them? This remarkably diverse yet rigorous volume goes far in clarifying the crucial questions and providing significant answers." - James Robert Brown, University of Toronto

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0822942372
• ISBN 13: 9780822942375
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 328