Value And Value Of Science

1100 Words3 Pages

I’ve learned that there are several values that go into science and research. This matters to me because I have always wondered whether science is all “fair and square”. It also matters to me because I feel that, in my own opinion and from what I have seen, science seems to lack value these days. I have also wondered what things affect science. Is it race, gender, or even how well one is able to grasp the fundamental concept of science? Is it all based on feelings and connections? Prior to the beginning of the class, I never knew that there were values in science. I have always felt that science is becoming vague and lacks structure and lacks truth. This made me to, often times, not believe anything I have researched. Also, prior to the …show more content…

It also angers me that scientists do not hold values, but rather feel as though facts are more important. To me, it is not always the case. Most scientists and researchers are so caught up in finding “evidence” and “truth”. In striving to do this, they often lose sight of the important things. Science is not truth and truth is not science. Also, evidence is not truth. This why I enjoyed the in class reading based on this topic. The Values in Science: An Introduction by Allchin, has to be one of the best articles I have read in the class. This was an article that expressed how I have been feeling about science. In the article, it states that “The most dramatic social influence of scientific values, however, may be the image of science itself as a model for all problem-solving”, which I believe is true. Science is problem solving and not a race to find truth. The article also does a great job of explaining what epistemic values and cultural values are. According to the article, epistemic values and cultural values are both important factors of science. Also according to the article, “…some values in science govern how we regulate the potentially biasing effect of other values in producing reliable knowledge. Lastly, the reading On Observation by Hanson made many things clear to me. They explained how scientists look at things differently. Not even just scientists, but everyone else. If this is true, why are there so many biases in science? Why can’t there be a balanced to what we see and what is

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