Scientific Objectivity Essay

Prior to the 1990’s, the problem of scientific objectivity was a question many philosophers tried to grapple with. Initially, the Logical Positivist’s view of scientific objectivity was most popular. They held to the belief that science was overall objective because of the distinction between the “context of discovery” and “context of justification,” which still allowed for science to contain some subjective elements (Longino 172). Basically, Positivist’s allowed for subjective qualities, such as mental makeup of scientists and values scientist brought in to their scientific work, by stating that the initial formulation or “discovery” of hypothesis/theories included subjective qualities. However, these subjective characteristics were negated by the fact that when investigating theories scientists focused on comparing their hypothesis to observable consequences in an empirical and objective manor (“context of justification). Thus, this allowed the Positivist’s to “acknowledge the play of subjective factors in initial development of hypotheses and theories while guaranteeing that their acceptance [is] determined not by subjective preferences but by observed reality” (Longino 172). However, although this theory was popular for some period of time, a philosopher by the name of Helen Longino approached the problem of scientific objectivity in a different way. She believed that science was a social practice that involved the inevitable input of various subjective factors such as scientist’s values, beliefs, etc… when performing their work. However, she goes on to say that what made science objective was the process in which scientist performed their work. She essentially thought that if the process in which scientist gained knowledge wa...

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...g organism that evolves over time and combines various different processes (in our case ideas, beliefs, values, etc…) in an efficient manner to produce a field that effectively answers many problems that we have about the world. To me, It is a given fact that scientists are humans as well, humans who bring with them a wide range of beliefs, experiences, knowledge, etc…. and the way that science works is through a process of all of these various beliefs, experiences, knowledge, etc…. coming together to try and find a solution that in the end is void of such subjective matters. Every scientist interprets data in a different way, and for science to make progress all scientist have to agree on a common conclusion to such data. As Longino explains, after peer review, criticisms, and revision the final product is a solution that explains the world in an objective manner.