Publication Details

Abstract

The paper deals with the fact-value distinction within the context of the value-free ideal of science. Drawing on some views of H. Putnam and J. Searle the author criticizes the dichotomic understanding of the fact-value relationship and argues that a strict distinction between science as a world of facts and morals as a world of values is unsustainable. Abandoning the fact-value dichotomy opens the space for rethinking the value-free ideal and for considering various types of values operating in science and influencing knowledge production. The author also tries to show that the recognition that science is free from neither cognitive nor non-cognitive values does not mean that we have to abandon the principle of objectivity. Instead of considering objectivity as an opposition to valueladeness, we should rather conceive it as connected with the social and communal character of knowledge producing practices.