Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c4f8m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T05:50:38.902Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Direct and Indirect Roles for Values in Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Kevin C. Elliott
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although many philosophers have employed the distinction between “direct” and “indirect” roles for values in science, I argue that it merits further clarification. The distinction can be formulated in several ways: as a logical point, as a distinction between epistemic attitudes, or as a clarification of different consequences associated with accepting scientific claims. Moreover, it can serve either as part of a normative ideal or as a tool for policing how values influence science. While various formulations of the distinction may (with further clarification) contribute to a normative ideal, they have limited effectiveness for regulating how values influence science.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 78 , Issue 2 , April 2011 , pp. 303 - 324
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

‡

I would like to thank Michael Dickson, Heather Douglas, Ann Johnson, Daniel McKaughan, Daniel Steel, Torsten Wilholt, and an anonymous reviewer for very helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article.

References

Churchman, C. West. 1948. “Statistics, Pragmatics, Induction.” Philosophy of Science 15:249–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, L. Jonathan. 1992. An Essay on Belief and Acceptance. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cranor, Carl. 1990. “Some Moral Issues in Risk Assessment.” Ethics 101:123–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodd, Julian, and Stern-Gillet, Suzanne. 1995. “The Is/Ought Gap, the Fact/Value Distinction and the Naturalistic Fallacy.” Dialogue 34:727–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Douglas, Heather. 2000. “Inductive Risk and Values in Science.” Philosophy of Science 67:559–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Douglas, Heather. 2005. “Inserting the Public Into Science.” In Democratization of Expertise? Exploring New Forms of Scientific Advice in Political Decision-Making, ed. Maasen, Sabine and Weingart, Peter, 153–69. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Douglas, Heather. 2006. “Bullshit at the Interface of Science and Policy: Global Warming, Toxic Substances, and Other Pesky Problems.” In Bullshit and Philosophy, ed. Hardcastle, Gary and Reisch, George, 213–26. Peru, IL: Open Court.Google Scholar
Douglas, Heather. 2008. “The Role of Values in Expert Reasoning.” Public Affairs Quarterly 22:1–18.Google Scholar
Douglas, Heather. 2009. Science, Policy, and the Value-Free Ideal. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elliott, Kevin. 2011. Is a Little Pollution Good for You? Incorporating Societal Values in Environmental Research. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giere, Ronald. 2003. “A New Program for Philosophy of Science?” Philosophy of Science 70:15–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardwig, John. 1991. “The Role of Trust in Knowledge.” Journal of Philosophy 88:693–708.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heil, John. 1983. “Believing What One Ought.” Journal of Philosophy 80:752–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hempel, Carl. 1965. “Science and Human Values.” In Aspects of Scientific Explanation, 81–96. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Howard, Don. 2006. “Lost Wanderers in the Forest of Knowledge: Some Thoughts on the Discovery-Justification Distinction.” In Revisiting Discovery and Justification: Historical and Philosophical Perspectives on the Context Distinction, ed. Schickore, Jutta and Steinle, Friedrich, 3–22. New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jasanoff, Sheila. 1990. The Fifth Branch: Science Advisers as Policymakers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kincaid, Harold, Dupre, John, and Wylie, Alison, eds. 2007. Value-Free Science? Ideals and Illusions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitcher, Philip. 1985. Vaulting Ambition: Sociobiology and the Quest for Human Nature. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kitcher, Philip. 2001. Science, Truth, and Democracy. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, Thomas. 1977. “Rationality, Value Judgment, and Theory Choice.” In The Essential Tension, 320–39. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lacey, Hugh. 1999. Is Science Value Free? Values and Scientific Understanding. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Laudan, Larry. 1981. “A Problem-Solving Approach to Scientific Progress.” In Scientific Revolutions, ed. Hacking, Ian, 144–55. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Longino, Helen. 1990. Science as Social Knowledge. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Longino, Helen. 1996. “Cognitive and Non-cognitive Values in Science: Rethinking the Dichotomy.” In Feminism, Science, and the Philosophy of Science, ed. Nelson, Lynn Hankinson and Nelson, Jack, 39–58. Dordrecht: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Longino, Helen. 2002. The Fate of Knowledge. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Machamer, Peter, and Wolters, Gereon, eds. 2004. Science, Values, and Objectivity. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKaughan, Daniel. 2007. “Toward a Richer Vocabulary of Epistemic Attitudes: Mapping the Cognitive Landscape.” PhD diss., University of Notre Dame.Google Scholar
McMullin, Ernan. 1983. “Values in Science.” In PSA 1982: Proceedings of the 1982 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Vol. 2, ed. Asquith, Peter and Nickles, Thomas, 3–28. East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Association.Google Scholar
Menand, Louis. 2001. The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America. New York: Farrar, Strous, & Giroux.Google Scholar
Merton, Robert. 1942/1979. “The Normative Structure of Science.” In The Social Structure of Science, 267–80. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Nagel, Ernest. 1961. The Structure of Science: Problems in the Logic of Scientific Explanation. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rooney, Phyllis. 1992. “On Values in Science: Is the Epistemic/Non-epistemic Distinction Useful?” In PSA 1992: Proceedings of the 1992 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Vol. 1, ed. Hull, David, Forbes, Micky, and Okruhlik, Kathleen, 13–22. East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Association.Google Scholar
Rudner, Richard. 1953. “The Scientist qua Scientist Makes Value Judgments.” Philosophy of Science 20:1–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solomon, Miriam. 2001. Social Empiricism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steel, Daniel. 2011. “Evidence, Values, and Acceptance.” Unpublished manuscript, Michigan State University.Google Scholar
van Fraassen, Bas. 1980. The Scientific Image. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Fraassen, Bas. 2002. The Empirical Stance. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar