Objectivity And Objectivity In Science

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Scientific objectivity is often characterized by the idea that “claims, methods and results of science are not, or should not be influenced by particular perspectives, value commitments or personal interests” (Julian and Sprenger, “Scientific Objectivity”). Movement to suppress the influence of contextual values on scientific inquiry are a result of prioritizing objective “truth” over subjective belief. Those who subscribe to the notion of objectivity believe that objective truths will sharpen science enough to the point where it exists solely for the purpose of displaying reality-independent truths that paint exact descriptions of the world that we live in. Ideally, this would allow for scientific inquiry to be free of contextual biases that …show more content…

It is essential to understand that our knowledge of the world is not mutually exclusive to that of the natural processes of the world or to our innate biases that are a result of individual situatedness within the world (ones that arise out of being socialized; namely gender, class, race etc). Since obtaining objective truth is impossible in so far as the knowledge that we have access to is limited by our reality-dependent existence, I will argue that values, specifically social, should be included, or at least accounted for, whenever one chooses to study, observe, or understand phenomena. I will accomplish this by first establishing the importance of subjective beliefs in science by highlighting issues with (scientific) objectivity, next I will discuss the benefits associated with the inclusion of social values in science, lastly, I will go on to explore criticisms of critics of non value-free model of science in order to support the previously mentioned benefits that social values hold within

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