Oxford Scholarship Online: Value-Free Science?

Home > Subject index > Philosophy > Table of contents > Chapter abstract

Ideals and Illusions

Kincaid, Harold Professor of Philosophy, University of Alabama

Dupré, John Professor of Philosophy, University of Exeter

Wylie, Alison Professor of Philosophy, University of Washington

Print publication date: 2007 (this edition)
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2009
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-19-530896-9
doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195308969.003.0001

Introduction

Harold Kincaid

John Dupré

Alison Wylie

This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of why we should care about the place of values in science. It then sorts out the numerous different theses involved in the idea of a value-free science and sketches some general kinds of arguments offered for and against those claims. An overview of the subsequent chapters is presented.
Keywords: values, science, morality, Quine

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195308969.003.0001