Science and Social Values

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Science and social values? The established wisdom has it that science offers us the truth about the empirical world - what is rather than what ought to be - and that social values have little to do with it. How else explain the fact that science can be used for both good and ill and that the results of science are (or at least should be) accepted as authoritative by people of widely different ethical and political persuasions? According to this view, in short, science is, or at least ought to be, "value-free" or "value-neutral." In this course we shall explore how recent research in history and sociology as well as philosophy of science has raised serious questions regarding this established wisdom and how such notions as scientific objectivity and autonomy and the role of science in a democratic society has had to be revised accordingly. Since this is a seminar course, students will lead class discussions, present the results of their individual research projects to the group, and have the opportunity to further develop these projects using the feedback from the group. The aim, of course, will be for students to develop fully informed and defensible responses to the controversial terrain we shall be exploring.