Science, Policy, and the Value-Free Ideal - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Science, Policy, and the Value-Free Ideal write by Heather E. Douglas. This book was released on 2009-07-15. Science, Policy, and the Value-Free Ideal available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. The role of science in policymaking has gained unprecedented stature in the United States, raising questions about the place of science and scientific expertise in the democratic process. Some scientists have been given considerable epistemic authority in shaping policy on issues of great moral and cultural significance, and the politicizing of these issues has become highly contentious. Since World War II, most philosophers of science have purported the concept that science should be "value-free." In Science, Policy and the Value-Free Ideal, Heather E. Douglas argues that such an ideal is neither adequate nor desirable for science. She contends that the moral responsibilities of scientists require the consideration of values even at the heart of science. She lobbies for a new ideal in which values serve an essential function throughout scientific inquiry, but where the role values play is constrained at key points, thus protecting the integrity and objectivity of science. In this vein, Douglas outlines a system for the application of values to guide scientists through points of uncertainty fraught with moral valence.Following a philosophical analysis of the historical background of science advising and the value-free ideal, Douglas defines how values should-and should not-function in science. She discusses the distinctive direct and indirect roles for values in reasoning, and outlines seven senses of objectivity, showing how each can be employed to determine the reliability of scientific claims. Douglas then uses these philosophical insights to clarify the distinction between junk science and sound science to be used in policymaking. In conclusion, she calls for greater openness on the values utilized in policymaking, and more public participation in the policymaking process, by suggesting various models for effective use of both the public and experts in key risk assessments.
Is Science Value Free?
Is Science Value Free? - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Is Science Value Free? write by Hugh Lacey. This book was released on 2005-06-23. Is Science Value Free? available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Exploring the role of values in scientific inquiry, Hugh Lacey examines the nature and meaning of values, and looks at challenges to the view, posed by postmodernists, feminists, radical ecologists, Third-World advocates and religious fundamentalists, that science is value free. He also focuses on discussions of 'development', especially in Third World countries. This paperback edition includes a new preface.
Value-free Science?
Value-free Science? - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Value-free Science? write by Robert Proctor. This book was released on 1991. Value-free Science? available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Proctor lucidly demonstrates how value-neutrality is a reaction to larger political developments, including the use of science by government and industry, the specialization of professional disciplines, and the efforts to stifle intellectual freedoms or to politicize the world of the academy.
Value-Free Science
Value-Free Science - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Value-Free Science write by Harold Kincaid. This book was released on 2007-03-15. Value-Free Science available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. It has long been thought that science is our best hope for realizing objective knowledge, but that, to deliver on this promise, it must be value free. Things are not so simple, however, as recent work in science studies makes clear. The contributors to this volume investigate where and how values are involved in science, and examine the implications of this involvement for ideals of objectivity.
Science as Social Knowledge
Science as Social Knowledge - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Science as Social Knowledge write by Helen E. Longino. This book was released on 2020-03-31. Science as Social Knowledge available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Conventional wisdom has it that the sciences, properly pursued, constitute a pure, value-free method of obtaining knowledge about the natural world. In light of the social and normative dimensions of many scientific debates, Helen Longino finds that general accounts of scientific methodology cannot support this common belief. Focusing on the notion of evidence, the author argues that a methodology powerful enough to account for theories of any scope and depth is incapable of ruling out the influence of social and cultural values in the very structuring of knowledge. The objectivity of scientific inquiry can nevertheless be maintained, she proposes, by understanding scientific inquiry as a social rather than an individual process. Seeking to open a dialogue between methodologists and social critics of the sciences, Longino develops this concept of "contextual empiricism" in an analysis of research programs that have drawn criticism from feminists. Examining theories of human evolution and of prenatal hormonal determination of "gender-role" behavior, of sex differences in cognition, and of sexual orientation, the author shows how assumptions laden with social values affect the description, presentation, and interpretation of data. In particular, Longino argues that research on the hormonal basis of "sex-differentiated behavior" involves assumptions not only about gender relations but also about human action and agency. She concludes with a discussion of the relation between science, values, and ideology, based on the work of Habermas, Foucault, Keller, and Haraway.
