How society can affect science

1
How society can affect science

• How social context can inform (good) science
• Things we have studied to consider
• The presence and role of auxiliary assumptions
• The role of systems or bodies of theories or
  hypotheses in generating If H, then I
• The role of paradigms in setting up a
  puzzle-solving tradition
• The theory-ladenness of observation

2
How society can affect science

• Are the only relevant auxiliary assumptions,
  bodies of theories, paradigms, etc. internal to
  science or can they include social beliefs?
• When are Broca and colleagues studying a
  biological basis for (allegedly) innate
  differences between races, classes, and sexes?
  What is the specific historical and cultural
  context?

3
How social context can inform (good?) science

• S.J. Gould, Womens Brains
• The hypothesis Women had smaller brains than men
  and, like it or not, could not equal men in
  intelligence.
• Players Broca, Le Bon, and others.
• The tests head/skull measuring of contemporary
  women in autopsies, and skull measuring of fossil
  remains.

4
How social context can inform (good?) science

• Sex differences
• Broca Anthropometrists studiers of human body
  size are working very hard to measure with
  scientific certitude the inferiority of women
• Broca There is no faith, however respectable,
  no interest, however legitimate, which must not
  accommodate itself to the progress of human
  knowledge and bend before truth.
• Broca (et al) Sad to say, but we must, that
  womens smaller brain size renders them inferior
  to men.

5
How social context can inform (good?) science

• Goulds argument some of Brocas numbers are
  impeccable
• I have the greatest respect for Brocas
  meticulous procedure in the measurement of
  autopsied brains. His numbers are sound.
• But
• Numbers by themselves do nothing. All depends on
  what you do with them.

6
How social context can inform (good?) science

• Goulds conclusions some of Brocas numbers are
  impeccable but
• He did not take into account the age of the women
  whose brain he autopsied
• The number of ancient skulls on which he based
  his argument that mens brains are now bigger
  than womens because of their need for
  intelligence to survive and provide, was way too
  small.
• And what if womens brains are smaller on average
  simply because their bodies are smaller? And
  thus have the same ratio of body size/brain size
  as men?

7
How social context can inform (good?) science

• Brocas response to such queries
• We might ask if the small size of the females
  brain depends exclusively upon the small size of
  her body as some colleagues ask.
• But we must not forget than women are, on the
  average, a little less intelligent than men, a
  difference which we should not exaggerate but
  which is, nonetheless, real.
• That they are less intelligent was supposed to be
  what he was establishing not assuming!

8
How social context can inform (good?) science

• Gould, again, trying to understand their world,
  and his bottom line in the essay
• To appreciate the social role of Broca and his
  school, we must recognize that his statements
  about the brains of women do not reflect an
  isolated prejudice toward a singular
  disadvantaged group.
• They must be weighed in the context of a general
  theory that supported contemporary social
  distinctions as biologically ordained.

9
What ethical responsibilities (if any) are
attendant to the practice of science?

• Recall the norms
• The autonomy of science
• Knowledge is a good for its own sake
• The case the discovery of a so-called feral
  child in California
• The scientific question Were Chomsky and other
  linguists correct that there is a critical
  window for language acquisition, beyond which
  language cant be learned?

10
What ethical responsibilities (if any) are
attendant to the practice of science?

• Did those studying Genie protect her well being?
  Suffer from rescue fantasies that motivated too
  much attention to teaching her language and too
  little to the other needs she had?
• In this case, was/is the knowledge to be gained
  a good in itself that trumped ethical
  questions?