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13 - What Is the Relation between Facts and Values in Biological Science?

Biology in Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2020

By
Carrie Friese  and
Barbara Prainsack
Edited by
Kostas Kampourakis  and
Tobias Uller
Kostas Kampourakis
Affiliation:
Université de Genève
Tobias Uller
Affiliation:
Lunds Universitet, Sweden
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Summary

It is well-known that the dividing line between facts and values can be blurry. This is the case for several reasons. One is that every statement about the world is expressed in human language, which always reflects values and judgments in human societies. Even if we use, for example, the seemingly neutral and factual word, “table,” we cannot fully understand the meaning of the word without knowing what people normally do with tables: eating or working on it, and not putting one’s dirty feet on it. Another reason that facts and values are not mutually exclusive is that statements about what happens in the world necessarily reflect how the world is organized and valued by those inhabiting it. For example, we could say that Mara is a reliable person. We could prove this “fact” by showing a record of all our interactions with Mara since we first met her to prove that she kept her promises and never let us down. At the same time, our statement that Mara is reliable is also a value statement in that it reflects societal (and possibly also personal) values in terms of what kinds of behavior are, or should be, expected from a person in our societies. Keeping a promise is valued by people because it is seen as contributing to the functioning of human interaction and social and political institutions.

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Philosophy of Science for Biologists , pp. 255 - 274
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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