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That Obscure Concept of Desire: The Ideological War over Scientific Models

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2022

Katarzyna Grunt-Mejer Open the ORCID record for Katarzyna Grunt-Mejer [Opens in a new window]
Katarzyna Grunt-Mejer*
Affiliation:
SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty of Psychology and Law, Poznań, Poland
*
Email: kgrunt-mejer@swps.edu.pl
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Abstract

This article analyzes the scientific debate surrounding the appropriateness of pharmacological interventions aimed at increasing female desire. It has three objectives: (1) to outline the nonepistemic values that underlie scientific concepts of desire; (2) to conduct an analysis of scientific misuses when justifying a drive-based model of desire and pharmacological intervention; and (3) to show how in this and similar cases of vague constructs we can demonstrate the role of nonepistemic values and assess their influence.

Type
Symposia Paper
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 89 , Issue 5 , December 2022 , pp. 1085 - 1093
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Philosophy of Science Association

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