blog traffic analysis
This-essay is a8401212.htm which is available at the web-site www.essayz.com. See more notes at the bottom. Previous-Essay <== This-Essay ==> Following-Essay By-Months By-Years By-Words Webs of Like-&-Un-Like ESSAYS <==> Like-&-UN-Like This-One ========================================================== %VALUE-NEUTRAL SCIENTISTS? 840121 Some people have believed in the myth of value-neutral scientists. Scientists were presumed to transcend dealing with values by being objective, dealing with issues which were not matters of mere opinion. If scientists are careful to deal only with questions which can be answered objectively they presumably do not deal with values which are open to debate and differing opinions which can not be settled objectively. To purify the myth---the term "science" was used in many instances where it would have been more honest and revealing to talk about the behavior of people who are scientists. The abstraction "science" is value neutral because "science" has never done anything, "science" can not be held accountable for misdeeds, "science" can not behave responsibly---because "science" can not behave in any way whatever. It is misleading to use the word "science" in reference to the actions of people. Reference should be made to scientists, preferably to specific scientists and/or their professional societies and their leaders. Scientists can be held accountable only when it is clear whose actions are to be evaluated. It is impossible for scientists to be value-neutral because they spend their own time, lead others to spend their own time, lead others to spend time, expend financial resources, and occasion the consumption of natural resources. All spending of scarce resources involves values judgments. The spending of the intellect of youth who study what scientists tell them to study---involves values judgments on the part of scientists and their students. It is dishonest for scientists to pretend to be involved in value neutral activities. The setting of priorities in the study of scientists' discoveries is full of value judgments. There is not enough time to study all discoveries, so decisions must be made to study some but not others. Those decisions will significantly affect human welfare and are value decisions. It is time that to treat such decisions as the political decisions which they are. (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in www.essayz.com Search for Integrity and Honesty (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy) ==========================================================
Lines beginning with a percent sign are  KEYWORDS  for use
in ESSAY-System Searches.  Their terminal digits are dates
of writing in the format @yymmdd#, where @ =  a  means 99,
@ =  b  means 20, and # = is a within-date essay-count.

Links to date-adjacent essays are near  page top & bottom.

Find the following links by clicking on CENTER when CENTER near the top or bottom of a web page of essayz.com 1. Go to HOME PAGE of essayz.com 2. Find brief-essays via keywords 3. Find brief-essay about ADDICTION 4. Search-Helps related to ABOVE-LINK 5. GoTo Action & Information Center 6. Find Regular-Essays via Year/Month 7. Find Regular-Essays via Word-Starts 8. Find Regular-Essay about LOVE

This-essay is a8401212.htm which is available at the web-site www.essayz.com. These 5 lines echo top lines. Previous-Essay <== This-Essay ==> Following-Essay By-Months By-Years By-Words Webs of Like-&-Un-Like ESSAYS <==> Like-&-UN-Like This-One