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The Challenge of the Social and the Pressure of Practice: Science and Values Revisited

edited by Martin Carrier, Don Howard and Janet Kourany

University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008
Paper: 978-0-8229-6277-9 | eISBN: 978-0-8229-7113-9 | Cloth: 978-0-8229-4317-4
Library of Congress Classification Q175.5.C4818 2008
Dewey Decimal Classification 306.45

ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE

ABOUT THIS BOOK

In The Challenge of the Social and the Pressure of Practice, philosophers, sociologists, and historians of science offer a multidisciplinary view of the complex interrelationships of values in science and society in both contemporary and historic contexts. They analyze the impact of commercialization and politicization on epistemic aspirations, and, conversely, the ethical dilemmas raised by “practically relevant” science in today's society. For example, much scientific research over the past quarter century has been guided by the financing that supports it. What effect has this had on the quality of research produced and the advancement of real knowledge?

The contributors reveal how social values affect objectivity, theory, and the direction of inquiry, and examine the byproducts of external value systems in topics such as “expertise” and “socially robust knowledge,” among others. They view science's own internal value systems, the earlier disconnection of societal values from the scientific process, and the plausibility of “value free” science.

The Challenge of the Social and the Pressure of Practice presents an in-depth analysis that places the role of values at the center of philosophical debate and raises questions of morality, credibility, and the future role of values in scientific inquiry.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Martin Carrier is professor of philosophy at Bielefeld University in Germany.
Don Howard is professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.
Janet Kourany is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.

REVIEWS

“This is an important collection of essays, by some of the best people in the field, on the most important and timely issue of the relations between science and values. These are issues that affect everyone.”
--Peter Machamer, University of Pittsburgh

“The early logical empiricists, the founders of modern philosophy of science, thought it impossible to arrive at a rational discourse about norms and values, and aimed at a value-free philosophy of science. In the meantime it has become clear that norms and values pervade the whole scientific enterprise from the beginning to the end. This splendid book that carefully confronts diverging views on this topic is a worthwhile introduction to the role and impact of epistemic and social values in science.”
--Gereon Wolters, University of Konstanz

“The Challenge of the Social and the Pressure of Practice takes the reader from the inside of philosophy to the outskirts of power. The discussion of epistemic and non-epistemic values prepares the ground. It leads to the question whether scientific knowledge needs to be more than merely correct-whether it ought to be socially robust as well. In the last part epistemic values are put under pressure by demands for economic benefit. Do these demands compromise or inspire the search for better knowledge? If only for the scope of this investigation, The Challenge of the Social and the Pressure of Practice is important reading for the philosophy of contemporary science.”
--Alfred Nordmann, University of Darmstadt, Germany

TABLE OF CONTENTS

<Carrier, Howard, and Kourany, contents page>
<page v, no folio, page vi, cont. or blank>
Contents
Preface		000
Introduction: Science and the Social	000
Martin Carrier
Part I. The Play of Values within the Core Areas of Scientific Research
1. Must Evidence Underdetermine Theory?	000
John D. Norton 
2. Values and Their Intersection: Reduction as Methodology and Ideology	000
Margaret Morrison
3. Values, Heuristics, and the Politics of Knowledge	000
Helen E. Longino 
4. Replacing the Ideal of Value-Free Science		000
Janet A. Kourany
5. Scientific Values and the Values of Science	000
Jay F. Rosenberg 
Part II. The Demands of Society on Science: Socially Robust Knowledge and Expertise
6. How Robust Is "Socially Robust Knowledge"?	000
Peter Weingart 
7. In Defense of Some Sweeping Claims about Socially Robust Knowledge	000
Roger Strand 
8. Third Wave Science Studies: Toward a History and Philosophy of Expertise	000
Christopher Hamlin 
Part III. The Exigencies of Research Funding: Epistemic Values and Economic Benefit
9. The Community of Science®	000
James Robert Brown
10. Science in the Grip of the Economy: On the Epistemic Impact of the Commercialization of Research	000
Martin Carrier
11. Promoting Disinterestedness or Making Use of Bias? Interests and Moral Obligation in Commercialized Research	000
Matthias Adam
Index	000

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