SIX1015

Science, Technology and Society

Semester 1 2022/2023

LECTURE 3:
SCIENCE AND
VALUES

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 Outlines
• Definition of values
• Values in science
• Intersection of science and values
• Lessons from the historical cases

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 Values: Definition

• Something that is desirable or worthy of pursuit.

• The beliefs that people have about what is right, wrong, and most
important in life, business, etc. which control their behaviour.

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 What say you?

• Science is about the facts and

nothing but the facts.
• Science is “value free”: scientific
research and its results should
not be contaminated with values
of any sort, whether political,
religious, moral, social, or
economic values.

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• The conception of science as a value-free enterprise has been widely
accepted and very influential at least since Max Weber defended it in
the nineteenth century.
• In recent decades, however, a growing number of philosophers of
science has cast doubt on it, and a consensus is emerging that science
is not – and cannot be – completely free of values.

Science as A Vocation – A
lecture by Max Weber in 1917.
“Science students should abandon the value-free enterprise
and learn to reflect on the relation between science and values
– only then can they become responsible academics and
citizens.”
Koster & de Regt (2020)

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 Values in science

• Epistemic and non-epistemic values

• Epistemic values: e.g accurate predictions and logical consistency
They are regarded as contributing to the goal of gaining knowledge.
The word “epistemic” comes from the Greek word episteme, meaning
knowledge

• Non- epistemic values: They do not consistently help us gain knowledge.

For example, political values

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 Intersection of science and values

Three primary ways:

a) There are values that guide scientific research
b) Scientific enterprise is always embedded in some particular culture, and its
values enter science through individual scientists, whether deliberately or
not.
c) Values emerge from science, both as process and product, and may be
redistributed more broadly in the culture or society. Scientific discoveries
may pose new challenges about values in society.

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a) Values of science and research ethics

• Scientists typically value reliability, testability, accuracy, efficiency, novelty

in research, honesty, credit for their accomplishments, health, economic
growth, environmental sustainability, and global security.
• Proper treatment of animal and human subject

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b) Values entering science

• Individuals express the values of their cultures and particular lives when
they engage in scientific activity.
• E.g in cultures where women and minorities have been largely excluded
from professional activity, they have generally been excluded from science
as well.

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• Bias research e.g craniometry –
• The bigger and more complex the brain, the more superior the individual
or species
• Caucasians had the largest skull size and therefore, the highest intelligence
and that Africans had the smallest skull size and lowest intelligence

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• Cognitive resources (concepts, interpretive
frameworks, motivations and values) affect how an
individual notices certain things, find something
relevant, asks questions, frames hypotheses, design
experiments, interpret results, accepts solution etc.
• And even if scientists (e.g., within a university
setting) are free to choose their own topic of
research, their personal interests, political ideas, or
religious beliefs may affect which issues they want to
investigate.
• The choice of research methods is also value-laden.
Epistemic values are clearly relevant here, but in
some cases, non-epistemic values can come into play
as well: think of financial considerations or ethical
restrictions (e.g., research on animals or human
subjects).

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• In short, scientific contributions of a scientist are shaped by his resources
or values.
• Given the different backgrounds and intellectual training, Cognitive
resources differ from individual to individual, even within the same
culture.
• Therefore, disagreement and variation in interpretation are expected in
the scientific community.

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• Religion as a cognitive resource that contributes positively to the growth
of knowledge.
• E.g Assumptions about the Noachian flood shaped William Buckland’s
work on fossil assemblages in caves.
• Religion played a significant role in the rise of scientific activities during
Islamic civilization. Research on mathematical sciences, for example, were
conducted because:
a) general encouragement of Islam on reasoning, acquiring knowledge,
and studying nature
b) fulfilling certain religious obligations e.g prayer times, qibla direction,
zakat and inheritance requires mathematical calculations

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c) Values exported from science

• Image of science among the public:

- Having authority or value- e.g products with ‘scientific’ claim
may be deemed better than other products
- Science as panacea for all problems

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• Science and technology can introduce new ethical or social dilemmas
e.g fair access to treatment
• New assisted reproductive technologies challenge the existing
concept of parent and family, identity etc

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Knowing the mutual relation between values and science, what should a
scientist/ science institution do?

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1. Given that all people— including scientists— have responsibilities to
address the effects of their choices on other people, scientists should
consider the roles of values in their work thoughtfully and intentionally
rather than making value- laden decisions carelessly and thoughtlessly.
2. To minimize bias- checks and balance, organized scepticism

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LESSONS FROM THE HISTORICAL CASES

The Lysenko Affair:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB19bPIUCxw
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56gqCXlUCoE

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The case of Lysenko (1927-1962)
• Soviet biologist, agronomist, geneticist during
Stalin regime.
• Director of the Institute of Genetics of the
Soviet Academy of Sciences
• The Lysenko affair - a classic example of how
politics can corrupt science and undermine its
rational basis
• prohibition of scepticism norm Trofim Denisovich Lysenko
(1898-1976)

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 Lysenkoism

• Rejected mendelian genetics, adhered to neo-lamarckism - viewed that

heritable characteristics were shaped directly by adaptation to the
environment.
• This was applied to agriculture during the Stalin era with disastrous
consequences.

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 Vernalization by Lysenko

• Vernalization is a well-known agricultural phenomenon, whereby seeds of

crop plants, such as wheat, are exposed to cold to stimulate their
germination.
• Lysenko claimed that yields would greatly increase if seeds of winter crop
varieties that died in harsh frosts were exposed to lower temperatures
before sowing, and then sown in spring in the same way as spring
varieties.
• Lysenko believed that heritable changes arise in plants as a result of
vernalization, while geneticists already knew the idea to be false.

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• Immediate implementation was ordered in 1931 and the area of fields
planted with vernalized seeds increased rapidly. It was applied on a large
scale without prior testing.
• While geneticists promised to produce new varieties within 4–5 years,
Lysenko claimed he could do this in 2–3 years and soon reported his
imaginary achievements. Lysenko’s promises were enthusiastically
embraced by the authorities because agriculture had been damaged by
collectivization, seizures of grain expropriated by authorities, and periodic
droughts and crop failures, leading to mass deaths from hunger.
• The case of poor scientific method and overrated support by the
government and press.

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 Suppression of Lysenko’s opposition

• Genetics in the Soviet Union stagnated because Soviet geneticists were

not allowed to challenge Lysenko’s ideas about heredity.
• During the height of Lysenkoism in the Soviet Union, scientists were not
allowed to do research that would challenge Lysenko’s views, they were
not allowed to publish papers that challenged Lysenko, and they were not
allowed to teach or even discuss views that contradicted Lysenkoism, such
as Mendelian genetics.
• More than 3000 biologists were fired, arrested, or executed.
• Nikolai Vavilov was disgracefully dismissed from the presidency of the
Agriculture Academy in 1938 and died in prison in 1940.

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 Tuskegee syphilis study

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56gqCXlUCoE

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• From 1932 to 1970, physicians at the Tuskegee Institute, a public health
clinic in Tuskegee, Alabama, conducted research on African-American men
who were suffering from syphilis.
• The research was sponsored by the US Department of Health and involved
399 subjects with latent syphilis, a phase of syphilis that is largely non-
infectious.

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• The purpose of the experiment was to learn about the natural
history of syphilis; follow the progression and natural history of the
disease, not to develop treatments for it.
• The patients were not divided into experimental and control sub-
group; all were simply observed without treatment.
• Some of the physicians who initially proposed the study said it would
last only a year, but it lasted nearly forty years, long after an effective
treatment for syphilis, penicillin, became available in the mid-1940s.

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• No patient consent was obtained in this study wherein spinal taps were
disguised as 'free treatment'.
• Subjects who participated in the study were not told that they were
receiving no genuine treatment, they were not told about the nature of
their disease, nor were they even told that they were participating in an
experiment.
• They were simply offered free medical “care” as well as hot lunches,
medical examinations, and free burials.

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References

Allchin, D. (1999). Values in science: An educational perspective. Science &

Education, 8(1), 1-12.
Koster, E. & de Regt, H.W. Science and Values in Undergraduate Education. Sci & Educ
29, 123–143 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-019-00093-7

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