Values and Objectivity in Science

The Current Controversy about Transgenic Crops

By (author) Hugh Lacey

Hardback - £99.00

Publication date:

28 June 2005

Length of book:

304 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739110454

Values and Objectivity in Science illuminates many of the ethical issues that arise concerning scientific practices and applications, offering an account of how social and ethical values play important roles within science. Hugh Lacey develops and clarifies his previous analysis by arguing for the importance of research being conducted under a plurality of strategies, contrasting "materialist strategies" with "agro-ecological strategies." By displaying the structure of current ethical controversies about the legitimacy of planting transgenic crops, this book illustrates that sound thinking on such issues must be grounded on an adequate philosophy of science, one that can clearly distinguish between the proper and the distorting roles of values in scientific practices. This book will prove useful for science students and practitioners as well as those interested in the growing ethical questions involved in scientific practices.
This book successfully combines an original account of values and objectivity in science with an application to the case of transgenic crops. It brings careful analysis to a politically charged set of issues, and shows through this case study how philosophy of science has global import.