S1 Ep 7 - Rachael Brown on Values in Science

The HPS Podcast - Conversations from History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science

Today on the podcast Samara talks with Dr Rachael Brown on values in science. In particular, the downfall of the value-free ideal.
Dr. Rachael Brown, is a philosopher of biology and director for the Centre for Philosophy of the Sciences at the Australian National University or ANU in Canberra.
Rachael runs her own wonderful podcast on philosophy and science called The P-Value.
In discussing values in science, Rachael describes how the traditional stance is that science works best when scientists do not bring personal or social values to their work, particularly when it comes to interpreting data or assessing hypotheses. However this value-free ideal is challenged on two key fronts. First, at a practical level, can science really be ever conducted without values? And second, would we want it to, even if we could? In other words, if used appropriately can values provide a beneficial component to the scientific process?
As part of the discussion on values and perspectives in science, Rachael also provides a valuable analogy, the concept of a figure on a stage being lit up by a variety of spotlights in order to fully see the figure. In a similarly way, Rachael describes how useful it is to have a variety of views on a particular natural phenomena as different viewpoints cast both differing 'lights' on a subject, but also different 'shadows'. It is only when multiple perspectives are obtained that the shadows become illuminated.
Some relevant links are provided below:
Rachael's podcast 'The P-Value' - https://thep-value.buzzsprout.com/
Rachael's personal website -
https://www.rachaelbrown.net/about-me.html
Heather Douglas book - Science, Policy and the Value-Free Ideal
A full transcript of the episode can also be found here: https://www.hpsunimelb.org/post/episode-7-transcript

Thanks for listening to The HPS Podcast with your current hosts, Samara Greenwood and Carmelina Contarino. You can find more about us on our blog, website, bluesky, twitter, instagram and facebook feeds. This podcast would not be possible without the support of School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. www.hpsunimelb.org