Re: objectivity and university

Eliza Lindsay (eliza@q7.com)
Tue, 30 Mar 1999 19:35:59 -0800 (PST)

Well, this is a huge topic in the philosophy of science and in lots of
other disciplines (such as science and technology study programs.) I have
done a lot of reading and thought on the topic but don't have any biblios
lieing around to hand you. If you find the topic interesting: A very
accessible book with a large bibliography which is coming to my mind at
the moment is "Whose Science? Whose Knowledge?" (Don't read it if you
don't like feminist perspectives.) But, I must tell you the
field on this topic is immense, truly staggering, especially as you
branch out. Indeed, much of Stephen Jay's Gould's "popular" books can be
seen as discussion of some of these issues, esp. e.g. "The Mismeasure of
Man".

Always the oddball what I think is perhaps not popular amongst many
folks: I believe that the facts do not come to us "brute" or
"bare"...Rather facts are theory-laden and theories (bodies of knowledge)
are value-laden and therefore the facts themselves are also value-laden.
At the same time, I am quite a realist...just so you know.
(A bit of philosophical jargon is used in this sentence, i.e., the
terms carry a lot of connotations that may not be immediately
apparent, but I am too lazy to spell things out.) Good
science is science infused with good values. That is, there isn't biasless
science/knowledge nor are there biasless seekers of knowledge/scientists.
Rather, there are knowledges and knowledge seekers with good biases. Now
of course, what's "good" is a whole other question.

I know someone's going to say, explain yourself. But, I doubt I'll want to
say much more. This topic went round and round my brain for several years
and I am taking a breather from it. I've set it down for awhile. Really
read some of the massive literature out there... If you like it try
reading Kant...

Cheers,
:-)
eliza

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