Values, heuristics and the politics of knowledge

Abstract

There is a set of values, often called cognitive, epistemicor scientific, frequently called upon as informative of good scientifi c judgment when evidence runs out. By contrasting those values with an alternate set drawn from the work of feminist scientists, historians, and philosophers, it is possible to show how the reliance on these so-called scientific values can have problematic social consequences. The article reviews the differential social valence of the two sets of values, argues that neither should be viewed as truth conducive, and proposes that both belong to a (probably larger) pool of heuristics whose appropriateness will depend on features of the particular inquiry in which they are deployed