Is science objective and value-free?
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Question
Value-free science?
Answer
The ideal of science that reports facts without letting the scientist's values shape the findings — a 'view from nowhere'.
Question
The four values science is meant to embody?
Answer
Impartiality (judge by evidence), neutrality (facts not oughts), autonomy (sets its own questions), accountability (open to check).
Question
Where do values enter science?
Answer
Through the choices — what to study, which evidence counts, when it's 'enough' — not usually the raw data.
Question
Longino's constitutive values?
Answer
The standards that make something GOOD science — accuracy, testability, breadth.
Question
Longino's contextual values?
Answer
The personal, social and political values a scientist brings in from outside — politics, funding, hopes.
Question
Longino on how science stays objective?
Answer
Not through one neutral mind, but through open, diverse criticism — a community checking each other's values.
Question
Why can diversity make science MORE objective?
Answer
Scientists with different values catch each other's blind spots; a group who all think alike miss the same things.
Question
Ideal vs reality of value-free science?
Answer
The ideal is widely liked; whether real science reaches it is the debate — Longino says objectivity is social, not solitary.
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Topic 6.3 hub
Science and society
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