Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T21:15:10.513Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf? The interweaving of values and science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Helena Likwornik
Helena Likwornik*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
*
*Email: helena.likwornik@utoronto.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The role of values in the scientific process is widely debated. But evidence and values cannot be neatly separated. Instead, values infuse the entire scientific process, starting with the choice of research questions. Research avenues are selected based on prior beliefs about the workings of the world. In fact, informally assigned prior probabilities and normalizing constants play an essential role in distinguishing causes from correlations and ignoring irrelevant associations that would otherwise be suggested by raw data. But since these initial probabilities often have a heterogeneous pedigree – often not all that went into their formation is known or knowable – it becomes difficult to cleanly separate evidence from values. At the same time, this reality does not undermine science's unique status in generating knowledge. This is because it is not the evidence per se generated by science, but rather the method by which science generates it, that justifies science's privileged role.

Keywords

valuessciencescientific processevidenceprior beliefsscientific methodprior beliefsnormalizing constantscauses and correlations
Type
Symposium
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , June 2015 , pp. 382 - 403
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bishop, Jeffery, and Stenger, Victor. 2004. “Retroactive Prayer: Lots of History, Not Much Mystery, and No Science.”; British Medical Journal 329: 1444–1446.10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1444CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brigandt, Ingo. 2015. “Social Values Influence the Adequacy Conditions of Scientific Theories: Beyond Inductive Risk.”; Canadian Journal of Philosophy. doi:10.1080/00455091.2015.1079004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Matthew J. 2013. “Values in Science beyond Underdetermination and Inductive Risk.”; Philosophy of Science 80: 829–839.10.1086/673720CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cochrane Reviewers’ Handbook – Glossary. Web. 20 June 2014.Google Scholar
Crane, Hauser Stephen, ed. 2011. Mayo Clinic on Digestive Health. 3rd ed. Rochester, NY: Mayo Clinic.Google Scholar
Douglas, Heather. 2009. Science, Policy, and the Value-free Ideal. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Douglas, Heather. 2013. “The Value of Cognitive Values.”; Philosophy of Science 80 (5): 796–806.10.1086/673716CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duhem, Pierre. ( 1914) 1954. The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Goldenberg, Maya J. 2015. “Whose Social Values? Evaluating Canada's ‘Death of Evidence’ Controversy.”; Canadian Journal of Philosophy. doi:10.1080/00455091.2015.1079003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kanner, Leo. 1943. “Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact.”; Nervous Child 2: 217–250.Google Scholar
Kontopantelis, Evangelos, Springate, David A., and David, Reeves. 2013. “A Re-analysis of the Cochrane Library Data: The Dangers of Unobserved Heterogeneity in Meta-analyses.”; PLoS One 8 (7): e69930. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0069930.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuhn, Thomas. 1977. “Objectivity, Value-judgement, and Theory Choice.”; In The Essential Tension, edited by Kuhn, Thomas, 320–339. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kusters, Johannes G., van Vliet, Arnoud H.M., and Kuipers, Ernst J.. 2006. “Pathogenesis of Helicobacter pylori Infection.”; Clinical Microbiology Reviews 19 (3): 449–490.10.1128/CMR.00054-05CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laudan, Parry. 2004. “The Epistemic, the Cognitive, and the Social.”; In Science, Values, and Objectivity, edited by Machamer, Peter and Wolters, Gereon, 14–23. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leibovici, Leonard. 2001. “Effects of Remote, Retroactive Intercessory Prayer on Outcomes in Patients with Bloodstream Infection: Randomised Controlled Trial.”; British Medical Journal 323: 1450–1451.10.1136/bmj.323.7327.1450CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lidz, Theodore, Fleck, Stephen, and Cornelison, Alice. 1965. Schizophrenia and the Family. Madison, WI: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Longino, H. E. 1996. “Cognitive and Non-cognitive Values in Science: Rethinking the Dichotomy.”; In Feminism, Science and the Philosophy of Science, edited by Nelson, L. Hankinson and Nelson, J., 39–58. Dordrecht: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMullin, Ernan. 1982. “Values in Science.”; PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association2: Symposia and Invited Papers4: 3–28.Google Scholar
“Medicine: The Child is Father.”; 1960. Time Magazine, July 25.Google Scholar
Munnangi, S., and Sonnenberg, A.. 1997. “Time Trends of Physician Visits and Treatment Patterns of Peptic Ulcer Disease in the United States.”; Archives of Internal Medicine . 157: 1489–1494, as cited on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Web. 20 June 2014.10.1001/archinte.1997.00440340131013CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paterson, Jane, Butterhill, Dale, Tindall, Claudia, Clodman, David, and Collins, April. 1999. Schizophrenia: An Information Guide (April 1999). Toronto, ON: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Web. 20 June 2014.Google Scholar
Psillos, Stathis, 2015. “Evidence: Wanted, Alive or Dead.”; Canadian Journal of Philosophy. doi:10.1080/00455091.2015.1079001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quine, Willard. 1951. “Main Trends in Recent Philosophy: Two Dogmas of Empiricism.”; The Philosophical Review 60: 20–43.10.2307/2181906CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rottschaefer, William A. 2003. “Assessing the Role of Non-epistemic Feminist Values in Scientific Inquiry.”; Behavior and Philosophy 31: 225–249.Google Scholar
Salmon, Wesley C. 1990. “The Appraisal of Theories: Kuhn Meets Bayes.”; PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers2: 325–332.Google Scholar
“Scientists Rally on Parliament Hill to Mourn Death of Evidence.”; Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Web. July 9, 2012.Google Scholar
Sober, Elliott. 2008. Evidence and Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511806285CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“Stomach and Duodenal Ulcers Peptic Ulcers.”; Hopkins Medicine Health Library. Web. 22 June 2014.Google Scholar
Sung, J. J., Kuipers, E. J., and El-Serag, H. B.. 2009. “Systematic Review: The Global Incidence and Prevalence of Peptic Ulcer Disease.”; Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics 29 (9): 938–946.10.1111/apt.2009.29.issue-9CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yamada, Tadataka, Searle, John G., Ahnen, Dennis, Aipers, David H., Greenberg, Harry B., Gray, Martha, Joscelyn, Kent B. et al. 1994. “Helicobacter Pylori in Peptic Ulcer Disease.”; National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference Statement, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Archive. Chicago, IL.Google Scholar