Scientific Objectivity and Human Effort

Boston studies in the philosophy of science, pp. 49–75

Abstract

Abstract Drawing on examples ranging from Renaissance humanism to present-day laboratory science, this chapter develops a threefold framework for understanding scientific objectivity. First, impersonal objectivity treats facts as speaking for themselves, effacing the agency of the investigator. Second, laborious objectivity grounds credibility in painstaking intellectual, manual, and social work. Third—and most distinctive—I identify an effortless path to objectivity, in which credibility is enhanced when important findings are presented as having emerged with striking ease. By bringing these strands into a single frame, the chapter shows how ideals of objectivity have shifted between erasing human involvement, demanding disciplined labour, and imagining labour-free insights. This account revises previous histories of objectivity and clarifies some conceptual tensions that continue to shape scientific practice.

Authors 1

1. James W. McAllister corresponding Aachen Institute of Philosophy, University of Leiden, Leiden

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Philosophy, University of Leiden, Leiden, Netherlands