lecture 13

Question 1

Three facts

Answer 1

scientists do science and interact with one another within specific historical, socsial, institutional and cultural circumstances

Scientists sometimes pursue projects that harm marginalized and also non marginalized groups, or are used to promote certain social aims

science aims to produce objective and trustworthy knowledge

Question 2

The value free ideal

Answer 2

science should be free from the influence of any social values

Any science influenced by values in any way is bad science

Good science involves only logical reasoning and evidence

Question 3

Social values

Answer 3

things, relationships or states that are (believed by some community to be) good

Examples: happiness, liberty, education, health, friendship, money and profit, fairness, respect, sacredness, law and order, family, sustainability, diversity

Question 4

Values and science

The value free ideal suggests

Answer 4

that science can produce objective knowledge to the extent it is free from values

The other extreme is that science is entirely non-objective and only serves to re-inforce pre-existing values

Question 5

The other extreme besides value free ideal

Answer 5

is that science is entirely non-objective, and only serves to re-inforce pre-existing values

Question 6

Best view of values and science is somewhere between the extremes

Answer 6

science does produce objective knowledge

Some values may promote scientific knowledge
Some values may hinder scientific knowledge

Question 7

illegitimate roles of values in science

Answer 7

endorsing a scientific theory not because of evidence but because we want it to be true (e.g. conflice of interest, funding bias, “big oil”)

Manipulating results to support a hypothesis and get published (e.g. p-hacking, image changing)

Exclusion of members of certain groups from scientific societies and institutions (e.g. women and people of colour in science)

Question 8

Legitimate roles of values in science

Answer 8

Choice of research question

choice of how much evidence is needed before accepting or rejecting a hypothesis

E.g. severity of inductive risks, viz. the risk of error in accepting or rejecting hypothesis

Question 9

Context and incentive structure matter

Answer 9

scientists are professionals paid for teaching and research by either public or private institutions

Chance of winning grant money, and making career advancements depend on quantity and quality of publications, citations, previous grants, social network etc.

Question 10

An example of tension between different incentives and their consequences

Answer 10

incentive to publish many, surprising, positive results quickly

lack of replications

Publication bias

Social praise and recognition as reward

Fraud

Producing new knowledge requires collaboration, openness to criticism and dissent, and transparency

Question 11

If science is to deliver objective trustworthy knowledge, then

Answer 11

scientists judgements and methods should be critically and openly assessed in light of diverse bodies of data, competing interpretations, and alternative hypotheses

> > an intersubjective process

Marginalization of certain groups impact this process