Is Western Science Value-Free?

Paper Summary:

This paper tackles the question of whether Western science is value free, maintaining the position that it is not. Considering science in general at first, the paper introduces Wittgenstein's views on the topic, and shows the unavoidable influence of language on the expression of science, whence the influx of cultural values. The problem of language appears in its most extreme form when applied to quantum mechanics. The writer then goes on to explore the specific values that underlie Western science. The analyses of Kant, Nietzsche and Weber are presented in order to demonstrate that Western science has a background and value system deriving from Christianity.

From the Paper:

"Philosophy, however, struggled to support such optimism, and was eventually led to the dead end of empirical skepticism. Kant elaborated on why absolute knowledge is impossible. We reason by the means of sentence structure of subject and predicate. The subject is cause of the predicate. The chain of cause and effect has no beginning, nor end, for each cause is in turn the effect of another preceding cause. This is how Kant describes practical reason, and is what facilitates understanding of contingent reality, and physical science is the epitome of such understanding. But such is not knowledge. In scientific statements we may proclaim an effect to follow a cause, but the cause is not the final one, for it has antecedent causes, and we may never arrive at the final and primary cause. But this does not imply that we abandon science. He posits the existence of "pure" reason, transcendental to practical reason, and the repository of knowledge. We are also spurred by the categorical imperative to follow the moral path, that which delivers knowledge, and identified with the ultimate good. The moral path to knowledge cannot be demonstrated, says Kant, but is actualized by faith."

Sample of Sources Used:

• BACON, F., 2001. The Advancement of Learning. Philadelphia, PA: Paul Dry Books.
• KANT, I., 1983. Perpetual Peace and Other Essays, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
• NEHAMAS, A., 1985. Nietzsche: Life as Literature. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• NIETZSCHE, F. W., 1956. The Birth of Tragedy and The Genealogy of Morals. New York: Doubleday.
• PAIS, A., 2000. The Genius of Science: A Portrait Gallery. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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