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“Empiricism all the way down”: a defense of the value-neutrality of science in response to Helen Longino's contextual empiricism

“Empiricism all the way down”: a defense of the value-neutrality of science in response to Helen... A central claim of Longino's contextual empiricism is that scientific inquiry, even when “properly conducted”, lacks the capacity to screen out the inºuence of contextual values on its results. I'll show first that Longino's attack against the epistemic integrity of science suffers from fatal empirical weak- nesses. Second I'll explain why Longino's practical proposition for suppressing biases in science, drawn from her contextual empiricism, is too demanding and, therefore, unable to serve its purpose. Finally, drawing on Bourdieu's sociological analysis of scientific communities, I'll sketch an alternative view of scientific practice reconciling a thoroughly social view of science (such as Longino's) with a defense of its epistemic integrity. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Perspectives on Science MIT Press

“Empiricism all the way down”: a defense of the value-neutrality of science in response to Helen Longino's contextual empiricism

Perspectives on Science , Volume 14 (2) – Jun 1, 2006

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References (22)

Publisher
MIT Press
Copyright
© 2006 by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ISSN
1063-6145
eISSN
1530-9274
DOI
10.1162/posc.2006.14.2.189
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

A central claim of Longino's contextual empiricism is that scientific inquiry, even when “properly conducted”, lacks the capacity to screen out the inºuence of contextual values on its results. I'll show first that Longino's attack against the epistemic integrity of science suffers from fatal empirical weak- nesses. Second I'll explain why Longino's practical proposition for suppressing biases in science, drawn from her contextual empiricism, is too demanding and, therefore, unable to serve its purpose. Finally, drawing on Bourdieu's sociological analysis of scientific communities, I'll sketch an alternative view of scientific practice reconciling a thoroughly social view of science (such as Longino's) with a defense of its epistemic integrity.

Journal

Perspectives on ScienceMIT Press

Published: Jun 1, 2006

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