Background
Longino, Helen Elizabeth was born on July 13, 1944 in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Daughter of James Charles Junior and Helen I. (O'Brien) Longino.
( Helen Longino seeks to break the current deadlock in th...)
Helen Longino seeks to break the current deadlock in the ongoing wars between philosophers of science and sociologists of science--academic battles founded on disagreement about the role of social forces in constructing scientific knowledge. While many philosophers of science downplay social forces, claiming that scientific knowledge is best considered as a product of cognitive processes, sociologists tend to argue that numerous noncognitive factors influence what scientists learn, how they package it, and how readily it is accepted. Underlying this disagreement, however, is a common assumption that social forces are a source of bias and irrationality. Longino challenges this assumption, arguing that social interaction actually assists us in securing firm, rationally based knowledge. This important insight allows her to develop a durable and novel account of scientific knowledge that integrates the social and cognitive. Longino begins with a detailed discussion of a wide range of contemporary thinkers who write on scientific knowledge, clarifying the philosophical points at issue. She then critically analyzes the dichotomous understanding of the rational and the social that characterizes both sides of the science studies stalemate and the social account that she sees as necessary for an epistemology of science that includes the full spectrum of cognitive processes. Throughout, her account is responsive both to the normative uses of the term knowledge and to the social conditions in which scientific knowledge is produced. Building on ideas first advanced in her influential book Science as Social Knowledge, Longino brings her account into dialogue with current work in social epistemology and science studies and shows how her critical social approach can help solve a variety of stubborn problems. While the book focuses on epistemological concerns related to the sociality of inquiry, Longino also takes up its implications for scientific pluralism. The social approach, she concludes, best allows us to retain a meaningful concept of knowledge in the face of theoretical plurality and uncertainty.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691088764/?tag=2022091-20
( Conventional wisdom has it that the sciences, properly ...)
Conventional wisdom has it that the sciences, properly pursued, constitute a pure, value-free method of obtaining knowledge about the natural world. In light of the social and normative dimensions of many scientific debates, Helen Longino finds that general accounts of scientific methodology cannot support this common belief. Focusing on the notion of evidence, the author argues that a methodology powerful enough to account for theories of any scope and depth is incapable of ruling out the influence of social and cultural values in the very structuring of knowledge. The objectivity of scientific inquiry can nevertheless be maintained, she proposes, by understanding scientific inquiry as a social rather than an individual process. Seeking to open a dialogue between methodologists and social critics of the sciences, Longino develops this concept of "contextual empiricism" in an analysis of research programs that have drawn criticism from feminists. Examining theories of human evolution and of prenatal hormonal determination of "gender-role" behavior, of sex differences in cognition, and of sexual orientation, the author shows how assumptions laden with social values affect the description, presentation, and interpretation of data. In particular, Longino argues that research on the hormonal basis of "sex-differentiated behavior" involves assumptions not only about gender relations but also about human action and agency. She concludes with a discussion of the relation between science, values, and ideology, based on the work of Habermas, Foucault, Keller, and Haraway.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691020515/?tag=2022091-20
(Helen Longino seeks to break the current deadlock in the ...)
Helen Longino seeks to break the current deadlock in the ongoing wars between philosophers of science and sociologists of science--academic battles founded on disagreement about the role of social forces in constructing scientific knowledge. While many philosophers of science downplay social forces, claiming that scientific knowledge is best considered as a product of cognitive processes, sociologists tend to argue that numerous noncognitive factors influence what scientists learn, how they package it, and how readily it is accepted. Underlying this disagreement, however, is a common assumption that social forces are a source of bias and irrationality. Longino challenges this assumption, arguing that social interaction actually assists us in securing firm, rationally based knowledge. This important insight allows her to develop a durable and novel account of scientific knowledge that integrates the social and cognitive. Longino begins with a detailed discussion of a wide range of contemporary thinkers who write on scientific knowledge, clarifying the philosophical points at issue. She then critically analyzes the dichotomous understanding of the rational and the social that characterizes both sides of the science studies stalemate and the social account that she sees as necessary for an epistemology of science that includes the full spectrum of cognitive processes. Throughout, her account is responsive both to the normative uses of the term knowledge and to the social conditions in which scientific knowledge is produced. Building on ideas first advanced in her influential book Science as Social Knowledge, Longino brings her account into dialogue with current work in social epistemology and science studies and shows how her critical social approach can help solve a variety of stubborn problems. While the book focuses on epistemological concerns related to the sociality of inquiry, Longino also takes up its implications for scientific pluralism. The social approach, s
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IFXIABU/?tag=2022091-20
Longino, Helen Elizabeth was born on July 13, 1944 in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Daughter of James Charles Junior and Helen I. (O'Brien) Longino.
Bachelor, Barnard College, 1966. Master of Arts, University Sussex, Brighton, England, 1967. Doctor of Philosophy, Johns Hopkins University, 1973.
Assistant professor University California-San Diego, La Jolla, 1971-1975. From assistant professor to associate professor Mills College, Oakland, California, 1975-1990. Professor Rice University, Houston, 1990-1995, University Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1995—2005, Stamford University, since 2005.
Scholar of the college University Minnesota College Liberal Arts, 2002, Sigma Xi distinguished lecturer, since 2002.
(Examining theories of human evolution and of prenatal hor...)
( Helen Longino seeks to break the current deadlock in th...)
(Helen Longino seeks to break the current deadlock in the ...)
( Conventional wisdom has it that the sciences, properly ...)
(Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include compa...)
Member American Philosophical Association (chair commission on status of women 1991-1994), Philosophy of Science Association (member governing board 1995-1998). F C.
Married Valerie Miner, March 18, 1981.