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The Scope and Limits of Scientific Objectivity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Joseph F. Hanna
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Abstract

The aim of this paper is twofold: first to sketch a framework for classifying a wide range of conceptions of scientific objectivity and second to present and defend a conception of scientific objectivity that fills a neglected niche in the resulting hierarchy of viewpoints. Roughly speaking, the proposed ideal of scientific objectivity is effectiveness in the informal but technical sense of an effective method. Science progresses when “higher levels of communicative discourse” are reached by transforming subjective judgments regarding the generation and reduction of data or the testing of theories into objective decision procedures that are automatic or mechanical.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 71 , Issue 3 , July 2004 , pp. 339 - 361
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

I am greatly indebted to the thoughtful, detailed and constructive criticisms of several anonymous referees (covering two rewrites of this paper), who both encouraged me to clarify my views and suggested new sources and ideas that helped me strengthen my arguments. I would also like to thank my colleague, Richard Hall, for many hours of fruitful argument over the question of scientific realism.

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