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Are the sciences value-free?

Are the sciences value-free? Although this looks like a simple question,the answer has severe consequences. Why? Because science, whatever it is,is one of the biggest discoveries of humankind. Science has arrived to thehuman understanding of reality and has changedalmost everything that weknow. By answering the question, are the sciences value-free or not, wecould get a better understanding of social values. It is important to approachthis theme because science touches most of the thingsthat we know. Theconsequences of scientific discoveries have serious repercussions in the lifeof human beings. History can testify to that. For instance, scientificdiscoveries have had an significant role in our contemporaries wars. Sciencealso, has been one of the causes between the enrichment of the richest

country of the world and the impoverishment of the developing countries aswell. Lets add another question to the issue; which further repercussionswould the morality values of science have, if any, in the understanding of ourworld? But, before continuing we can ask; what is science? In a restricteddefinition science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based onscientific method, as well as to the organized body of knowledge gainedthrough such research. Science is quantifiable, telling us what is empiricallytrue; it is about data and facts. Some scientist would say that science cannotdiscover values, because facts have no values: facts just are. Is that totallytrue? Could sciences be considered to have some kinds of values in spite ofthe objectivity that that discipline claims to have? More questions arrive to

our essay; is the science free from political interests or any kind of evil powerwhich would want to dominate the world? That question could look like thefirst line of a Hollywood movie. However, Hiroshima and Nagasaki,Awtzwitch, Word War I-II, and so on can testify that the question is more thanjustifiable.

For a better understanding of our prompt lets take a look to the follownews. The report is about the financial aid that Obamas government willgive to the research in embryonic stem cells.

WASHINGTON (March 2009) - Reversing Bush policy, President BarackObama cleared the way for a significant increase in federal dollars forembryonic stem cell research and promised no scientific data will be"distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda." Obama's action reversesBush's stem cell policy by undoing his 2001 directive that banned federalfunding for research into stem lines created after Aug. 9, 2001. Fox News.

Why do we have two different political decisions about the financial aidon scientific research? Why does president Obama claim that thoseresearches wont be used or concealed for the government? What is thepolemic behind that kind of scientific experiments? Why do two different

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From my point of view, as I quoted before: Science is a humanenterprise, so values inevitably come into play. Yes, it is true that in thehard sciences is nave or incoherent to talk about values. However, what isthe main goal of those subjects. We shouldnt forget that our researches,facts, and experiments are not disassociated from our main goals. What are

our main goals? I will talk later about it. The fact that science is most relatedwith the empirically word doesnt imply that the way that the results of anexperiment are interpreted are not affected for some kind of values. Theresult of every kind of experiment is stained with our preconceptions. Valuesand agendas most of the time compromise scientific objectivity. When theresult of an experiment compromises the pocket of the sponsor the resultsmust be changed. For instance, advances in the use of green technologyhave been hidden for many years in the automotive industry. After decadesavoiding the use of alternatives sources of energy, General Motors, forexample, have accepted, under the pressure of Obamas Government, tochange its system of production.

In many situations scientistsbring their assumptions and biases to thelab or even more, to the final result of the experiment. Science is not onlyempirical data, facts or numbers but the result of sensitive data affected withhumans values. Our contemporary progress, thanks to science, is alwaystrying to define itself. Each era has its own definitions of values and who isvaluable as well. Four centuries ago people who doesnt look like aEuropean person, werent considered human. One century ago our definitionabout who was human being and who deserved respect changed. Thanks toscience the ideals and utopias which come from ethics values are having astrong support. If it is true that hard sciences: physics, math, astronomy, andso on, do not say anything about ethic and morality values, it is also true

that our knowledge, our reason and our capacity to understand the world,have addressed us to a better comprehension of our human rights. Scienceis about reason, and our reason most of the time let us know what is thecorrect direction to gain our dreams of a better world. Our knowledge hasbeen used to sustained horrible causes. However it is more what we havegained in the progress of our civilization than the things that we have loose.It is true that science doesnt let us know by itself what is good or evil.Nevertheless, science, as one of the most perfect projections of what ahuman being is, has a rational basis for values. As professor Kincaid says,rational thought which comes from science is the prime virtuefrom whichthe other virtues such as integrity, justice, productivity and pride arederived.

Some ideas come against my opinion about science and its connectionwith values. For instance, there are people who believe that science cannothelp us decide what to do or how to live with values. Those people sustainthat the main purpose of science is no more and no less than to learn factsabout reality, and values are not reality.

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Additionally, in the scientific community, there are certain sorts ofpessimism which sustain that science itself has destroyed any root of values.I want to share Bryan Appleyards ideas as an example of that kind ofthought. Mr. Appleayard is a British journalist author of the bookUnderstanding the Present: Science and the Soul of Modern Man. This

summary appeared in the Weekend Australian of June 6-7, 1992, WeekendReview 4):

The oddest thing about the science I have been describing is notsimply that it creates a cosmic machine that does not need us, but thatscience only actually works on the assumption that we do not exist ... Thescientific world view has denied us an external anchor for our values ...Science implicitly denies the self its place in the world and its source ofvalues. So the self resorts, finally, to a pagan art devoted to its owncultivation and worship ... If you do not believe in any ultimate mystery in theworld, then there can be no ultimate mystery in the human self...

From this perspective science seems to be a creation of human beings,

a grown up monster that hasabandoned its creator. The point of view abovepresented, doesnt only affirms science as value-free, but even more alsoclaims science as destructive of values.

To defend my arguments against those who considerer science asvalue-free I will use Habermas ideas. Habermas, in his book Knowledge andHuman Interests, shares the thought that knowledge is rooted in universalhuman interests. According to Habermas every kind of interests, and eachtype of knowledge natural science, human science, criticaltheory shoulddo their job working in harmony with each other. Habermas considered thatall problems begin when knowledge is reduced to the knowledge of naturethat we get from the physical and natural sciences. It is the abuse of the

physical and natural sciences and their technological model of rationalitythat causes our social problems: says Habermas. According to thisphilosopher the fact that science and technological rationality have beenabused and misused, as Marcuse, Nietzsche, and Heidegger believe, doesntimply that science and technology are inherently dangerous through society.Science still has a liberating potential. Habermas believes that the potentialof science is based upon the beneficial dimensions of science application forthe improvement of human life.

Moral and ethical values do not belong only to the metaphysical world.The reason and all the knowledge of human being, you can call it science,

technology or whatever you want, have a main value from where othervalues are derived. That value is the human life. The virtue of that life is therational thinking from the other virtues such as integrity, justice,productivity and pride are derived. It is up to us to deny or to accept whatour reason is calling us to do. The respect of human life and the search forthe ideals of humanity, directly or indirectly, are the main goals of all thesciences. We should keep trying and never give up on making those goalsreality.

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