Helen Longino on Feminism and the Role of Values in Science

Sheykhrezaee, Hossein; Bikaraan-Behesht, Hamed

doi:10.30465/ps.2020.4551

Helen Longino on Feminism and the Role of Values in Science

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Hossein sheykhrezaee ¹

Hamed Bikaraan-Behesht ²

¹ Assistant Professor of Philosophy Research Institute of Iran

² Ph.D. Department of Science Studies, Research Institute of Wisdom and Philosophy, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.30465/ps.2020.4551

Abstract

The issue of the role of social and cultural values in science has provoked many debates in the last few decades and researchers in science studies have approached the issue in different ways. The proponents of feminist science and epistemology are among those who have paid much attention to the issue. Some of the feminists believe that values play an undeniable role in the products of science. In particular, masculine values, they claim, have an essential role in the current scientific theories. Some of them even try to argue for the view that masculine values should be replaced with feminine ones. However, some other feminists reject the view, and among them is Helen Longino. Although Longino admits that masculine values have played some role in many scientific theories, she denies that there is a unique set of feminine superior values. In this paper, we examined Longino’s view on the role of values in science as well as feminist science. We criticized two elements of her view

Keywords

value-free science

feminist science

constitutive values

contextual values

underdetermination

bad science

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