Values as heuristics: a contextual empiricist account of assessing values scientifically

Feminist philosophers have discussed the prospects for assessing values empirically, particularly given the ongoing threat of sexism and other oppressive values influencing science and society. Some advocates of such tests now champion a values as evidence approach, and they criticize Helen Longino's contextual empiricism for not holding values to the same level of empirical scrutiny as other claims. In this paper, we defend contextual empiricism by arguing that many of these criticisms are based on mischaracterizations of Longino's position, overstatements of certain claims, and false dichotomies. Her contextual empiricism not only allows for the empirical support and disconfirmation of values, but Longino explicitly discusses when values can be empirically adjudicated and emphasizes the crucial role of the community for standards of evidence. We support contextual empiricism and elaborate a less direct account of values as heuristics by reviewing Longino's theory of evidence and then using a case study from Elisabeth Lloyd on the biology of female orgasm, demonstrating the disconfirmation of androcentric values in evolutionary science. Within Longino's and Lloyd's contextual empiricism, values do not get treated as empirical evidence to be directly assessed by individuals, but rather values are heuristic tools to build models whose use can be validated or invalidated by communities based on their empirical fruitfulness in the logic and pragmatics of research questions in specific historical and cultural contexts.

Automated summary

Feminist philosophers discuss assessing values empirically given the influence of sexism and other oppressive values on science and society. Critics argue that Helen Longino's contextual empiricism does not subject values to the same empirical scrutiny as other claims. However, this paper defends contextual empiricism by clarifying Longino's position, emphasizing the role of the community in assessing values, and providing a case study that demonstrates the disconfirmation of androcentric values in evolutionary science.