Helen Longino

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Helen Longino
Helen E Longino.jpg
BornJuly 13, 1944 (1944-07-13) (age 80)
Education Barnard College (BA)
University of Sussex (MA)
Johns Hopkins University (PhD)
Era Contemporary philosophy
Region Western philosophy
Institutions Mills College, Rice University, University of Minnesota, Stanford University
Main interests
 Feminist theory, philosophy of science, philosophy of biology, social epistemology, feminist epistemology
External videos
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg "Helen Longino: Perspectives and Pluralities", Rotman Institute of Philosophy

Helen Elizabeth Longino [1] (born July 13, 1944) is an American philosopher of science who has argued for the significance of values and social interactions to scientific inquiry. She has written about the role of women in science and is a central figure in feminist epistemology and social epistemology. She is the Clarence Irving Lewis Professor of Philosophy, Emerita, at Stanford University. In 2016, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. [2]

Contents

Education and career

Longino received her B.A. in English literature from Barnard College in 1966 [1] [3] [4] and her M.A. in philosophy from the University of Sussex, England, in 1967. She earned her PhD from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland in 1973, under the supervision of Peter Achinstein. Her dissertation dealt with Inference and Scientific Discovery. [5]

Longino taught at the University of California, San Diego (1973–1975), Mills College (1975–1990), Rice University (1990–1995), and the University of Minnesota (1995–2005) [6] before joining the philosophy department of Stanford University. She was active in the women's liberation movement and in establishing women's studies in several institutions. [7] [8] She became the Clarence Irving Lewis Professor of Philosophy in 2008 and served as chair of the philosophy department from 2008 to 2011. [5] [9]

Longino served as president of the Philosophy of Science Association (2013–2014), [10] and is the First Vice President of the Division of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and Technology of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science (2016–2019). [11]

Philosophical work

In her work, Longino discusses the social dimensions of scientific knowledge and the relations of social and cognitive values. She examines feminist and social epistemologies and their implications for scientific pluralism. [12] Rather than suggesting that there is a distinctively female way of knowing, Longino emphasizes the idea of "doing epistemology as a feminist", an approach bringing with it an awareness of the many ways in which a question may be characterized. [13] [14]

In her first book, Science as Social Knowledge (1990), Longino argued for the relevance of social values, or values which are part of the human context of science, to the justification of scientific knowledge as objective. In her contextual empiricism, she argues that observations and data of the sort taken by scientists are not by themselves evidence for or against any particular hypotheses. Rather, the relevance of any particular data for any given hypothesis is decided by human beliefs and assumptions about what kinds of data can support what kinds of hypotheses. Moreover, even when the relevance of evidence is decided, there remains a logical gap between evidence and full justification of interesting scientific theories (the traditional philosophical problem of underdetermination of theories). This gap, too, must be bridged by beliefs and assumptions about legitimate reasoning in order for evidence to help us decide which hypotheses to accept as true. [15] [16] [17]

Fortunately, the use of diverse perspectives to criticize hypotheses can turn some of those hypotheses into scientific knowledge. Hypotheses become knowledge when they are subjected to scrutiny from diverse perspectives, especially by those with diverse beliefs and values. [18] In contrast to those philosophers who would point to the two evidential gaps above to argue that science is not objective therefore, Longino argues that scrutiny by those with diverse values can instead support the objectivity of science. [19] Accordingly, our values which do not immediately seem to have anything to do with science are crucial to the objectivity of pieces of scientific knowledge, and science can be objective precisely because it is not value-free. [8] [20] [21] [22] From this viewpoint, dissent is important in testing the adequacy of our grounds for accepting a theory. [23] Open critical dialogue within a community can potentially enable the community to overcome bias. [24] To attain objectivity, science must permit and engage with "transformative criticism". [8]

Longino (1990, 2001) has developed most fully a conception of objectivity based on democratic discussion. Her key idea is that the production of knowledge is a social enterprise, secured through the critical and cooperative interactions of inquirers. The products of this social enterprise are more objective, the more responsive they are to criticism from all points of view.

— Elizabeth Anderson, 2015 [25]

Longino's book The Fate of Knowledge (2002) explores and attempts to reconcile the accounts of knowledge of philosophers and sociologists of science. [26]

Most recently, in Studying Human Behavior: How Scientists Investigate Aggression and Sexuality (2013), Longino examines five scientific approaches to human aggression and sexuality in terms of their epistemological frameworks, the types of knowledge that they produce, and their pragmatic goals. She argues that different approaches begin from and build upon different causes, each of them producing partial knowledge about the subject. As such, they cannot be reduced to a single perspective. From her perspective in social epistemology, Longino argues that scientific research will be more useful as a guide to public policy makers if the plurality of different approaches to knowledge is acknowledged. Increasing awareness of the range of perspectives to be examined can benefit policy by more thoroughly informing decisions, and also encourage caution about too quickly adopting policy positions based on a limited perspective. [27]

Though her work on the nature of scientific knowledge is broadly feminist in the sense that it argues for the value of contributions by diverse people (and accordingly the value of the contributions of women) to science, some of Longino's other work has been more explicitly feminist and concerned with women. For example, she has presented and analyzed alternative narratives of female and male-centered accounts of human evolution, emphasizing the impact of gender-centered assumptions on the formation of theory. [28]

Thus, conventional scientific work on the history of human evolution tends to prioritise the activities of males even though (according to Longino and to Hubbard) there is nothing in the data or in established theory which means that the evolutionary changes are any more likely to be attributable to males than females. ... therefore we do have plausible evidence that the construction of scientific knowledge at the forefront of research ... has been influenced by gendered assumptions.

— Steven Yearly, 2005 [28]

Beyond the study of knowledge, her writing has included the analysis of the nature of pornography and the circumstances under which it is morally problematic. [29] [30]

Awards and honors

In 2002, Longino's book The Fate of Knowledge (2001) received the Robert K. Merton Professional Award for best book from the Section for Science, Knowledge, and Technology of the American Sociological Association. [31]

In 2014, Longino's book Studying Human Behavior (2013) was awarded the Best Book in Feminist Philosophy Prize for 2014 by the Women's Caucus of the Philosophy of Science Association. [6]

In 2016 Helen Longino was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. [32] [33] She was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2018. [34]

Bibliography

Books

Chapters in books

Journal articles

Related Research Articles

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. It studies the nature, origin, and scope of knowledge, epistemic justification, the rationality of belief, and various related issues. Debates in contemporary epistemology are generally clustered around four core areas:

Postmodern philosophy is a philosophical movement that arose in the second half of the 20th century as a critical response to assumptions allegedly present in modernist philosophical ideas regarding culture, identity, history, or language that were developed during the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment. Postmodernist thinkers developed concepts like différance, repetition, trace, and hyperreality to subvert "grand narratives", univocity of being, and epistemic certainty. Postmodern philosophy questions the importance of power relationships, personalization, and discourse in the "construction" of truth and world views. Many postmodernists appear to deny that an objective reality exists, and appear to deny that there are objective moral values.

Social epistemology refers to a broad set of approaches that can be taken in epistemology that construes human knowledge as a collective achievement. Another way of characterizing social epistemology is as the evaluation of the social dimensions of knowledge or information.

Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. Amongst its central questions are the difference between science and non-science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultimate purpose and meaning of science as a human endeavour. Philosophy of science focuses on metaphysical, epistemic and semantic aspects of scientific practice, and overlaps with metaphysics, ontology, logic, and epistemology, for example, when it explores the relationship between science and the concept of truth. Philosophy of science is both a theoretical and empirical discipline, relying on philosophical theorising as well as meta-studies of scientific practice. Ethical issues such as bioethics and scientific misconduct are often considered ethics or science studies rather than the philosophy of science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social constructionism</span> Sociological theory regarding shared understandings

Social constructionism is a term used in sociology, social ontology, and communication theory. The term can serve somewhat different functions in each field; however, the foundation of this theoretical framework suggests various facets of social reality—such as concepts, beliefs, norms, and values—are formed through continuous interactions and negotiations among society's members, rather than empirical observation of physical reality. The theory of social constructionism posits that much of what individuals perceive as 'reality' is actually the outcome of a dynamic process of construction influenced by social conventions and structures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knowledge</span> Awareness of facts or being competent

Knowledge is an awareness of facts, a familiarity with individuals and situations, or a practical skill. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often characterized as true belief that is distinct from opinion or guesswork by virtue of justification. While there is wide agreement among philosophers that propositional knowledge is a form of true belief, many controversies focus on justification. This includes questions like how to understand justification, whether it is needed at all, and whether something else besides it is needed. These controversies intensified in the latter half of the 20th century due to a series of thought experiments called Gettier cases that provoked alternative definitions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Applied philosophy</span> Branch of philosophy

Applied philosophy is a branch of philosophy that studies philosophical problems of practical concern. The topic covers a broad spectrum of issues in environment, medicine, science, engineering, policy, law, politics, economics and education. The term was popularised in 1982 by the founding of the Society for Applied Philosophy by Brenda Almond, and its subsequent journal publication Journal of Applied Philosophy edited by Elizabeth Brake. Methods of applied philosophy are similar to other philosophical methods including questioning, dialectic, critical discussion, rational argument, systematic presentation, thought experiments and logical argumentation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Postpositivism</span> Metatheoretical stance on scientific inquiry

Postpositivism or postempiricism is a metatheoretical stance that critiques and amends positivism and has impacted theories and practices across philosophy, social sciences, and various models of scientific inquiry. While positivists emphasize independence between the researcher and the researched person, postpositivists argue that theories, hypotheses, background knowledge and values of the researcher can influence what is observed. Postpositivists pursue objectivity by recognizing the possible effects of biases. While positivists emphasize quantitative methods, postpositivists consider both quantitative and qualitative methods to be valid approaches.

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Evolutionary epistemology refers to three distinct topics: (1) the biological evolution of cognitive mechanisms in animals and humans, (2) a theory that knowledge itself evolves by natural selection, and (3) the study of the historical discovery of new abstract entities such as abstract number or abstract value that necessarily precede the individual acquisition and usage of such abstractions. As a branch of inquiry in epistemology, evolutionary epistemology lies at the crossroads of philosophy and evolutionary biology.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feminist philosophy of science</span> Means of interpreting scientific evidence through a feminist lens

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References

  1. 1 2 Mortarboard. New York City, New York: Barnard College. 1966. p. 118. Retrieved October 9, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Six Stanford professors elected to 2016 class of American Academy of Arts and Sciences". April 27, 2016.
  3. ↑ "Class of 1966". Barnard College. Retrieved October 8, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Bibliography of Alumnae Authors". Archives Barnard Library. Archived from the original on May 19, 2017. Retrieved October 9, 2016.
  5. 1 2 "Helen E. Longino: Curriculum Vitae Fall, 2012" (PDF). Stanford University. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 20, 2015. Retrieved October 8, 2016.
  6. 1 2 Meckien, Richard (October 6, 2015). "Helen Longino". Institute of Advanced Studies of the University of São Paulo.
  7. ↑ "Helen Longino". Feminist Theory Website. Retrieved October 9, 2016.
  8. 1 2 3 Brown, James Robert (2012). Philosophy of science : the key thinkers. London: Continuum. pp. 245–249. ISBN   978-1-4411-4200-9.
  9. ↑ "Helen Longino". Stanford University. Retrieved October 8, 2016.
  10. ↑ "History of Science Society Philosophy of Science Association 6–9 November 2014 Chicago, Illinois" (PDF). History of Science Society. Retrieved October 9, 2016.
  11. ↑ "INTERNATIONAL UNION OF HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DIVISION OF LOGIC, METHODOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY BULLETIN No. 22". International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology. 2015. Retrieved October 9, 2016.
  12. ↑ "An interview with Helen Longina". The Dualist. University of Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science. September 2003. Retrieved October 9, 2016.
  13. ↑ Ruitenberg, Claudia W.; Phillips, D.C. (2012). Education, culture and epistemological diversity mapping a disputed terrain. Dordrecht: Springer. p. 62. ISBN   978-94-007-2066-4 . Retrieved October 9, 2016.
  14. ↑ Crasnow, Sharon L.; Superson, Anita M. (2012). Out from the shadows : analytical feminist contributions to traditional philosophy. Oxford: Oxford university press. p. 355. ISBN   978-0-19-985547-6 . Retrieved October 9, 2016.
  15. ↑ Reiss, Julian; Sprenger, Jan (2016). "Scientific Objectivity". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved October 9, 2016.
  16. ↑ Longino, Helen (2016). "The Social Dimensions of Scientific Knowledge". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved October 9, 2016.
  17. ↑ Heikes, Deborah K. (February 2004). "The Bias Paradox: Why it's Not Just for Feminists Anymore". Synthese. 138 (3): 315–335. doi:10.1023/B:SYNT.0000016424.47883.b9. S2CID   37513738.
  18. ↑ Anderson, Elizabeth. "How Not to Criticize Feminist Epistemology: a Review of Scrutinizing Feminist Epistemology".
  19. ↑ Crasnow, Sharon L. (1993). "Can Science Be Objective? Longino's Science as Social Knowledge". Hypatia. 8 (3): 194–201. doi:10.1111/j.1527-2001.1993.tb00045.x. JSTOR   3810414. S2CID   145180730.
  20. ↑ Kincaid, Harold; Dupré, John; Wylie, Alison (2007). Value-free science? : ideals and illusions. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-530896-9.
  21. ↑ Gannett, Lisa (February 21, 2008). "Harold Kincaid, John Dupré, and Alison Wylie (eds.), Value-Free Science? Ideals and Illusions, Oxford University Press, 2007, 241pp., $65.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780195308969. Reviewed by Lisa Gannett, St. Mary's University, Halifax". Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. Retrieved October 9, 2016.
  22. ↑ Wray, K. Brad (1998). "Defending Longino's Social Epistemology". Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy, in Boston, Massachusetts from August 10–15, 1998. Retrieved October 9, 2016.
  23. ↑ Grasswick, Heidi E. (2011). Feminist epistemology and philosophy of science power in knowledge. Dordrecht: Springer. p. 22. ISBN   978-1-4020-6835-5 . Retrieved October 9, 2016.
  24. ↑ Eigi, Jaana (2012). "Two Millian Arguments: Using Helen Longino's Approach to Solve the Problems Philip Kitcher Targeted with His Argument on Freedom of Inquiry" (PDF). Studia Philosophica Estonica. December. Retrieved October 9, 2016.
  25. ↑ Anderson, Elizabeth (2015). "Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved October 9, 2016.
  26. ↑ Barberis, Daniela (September 2004). "Helen E. Longino. The Fate of Knowledge". Isis. 95 (3): 539–540. doi:10.1086/429058.
  27. ↑ Weaver, Sara; Fehr, Carla (2013). "Studying Human Behavior: How Scientists Investigate Aggression and Sexuality". Hypatia Reviews Online. Archived from the original on October 10, 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2016.
  28. 1 2 Yearly, Steven (2005). Making sense of science : understanding the social study of science. London: SAGE. ISBN   978-1-4129-3389-6 . Retrieved October 9, 2016.
  29. ↑ Longino, Helen E. (2014). "Pornography, oppression, and freedom : a closer look". In Cahn, Steven M. (ed.). Exploring ethics : an introductory anthology (Third ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-994658-7.
  30. ↑ Ward, David V. "Feminism, Pornography, and Censorship". Enlightenment.
  31. ↑ "Footnotes". American Sociological Association. 2002.
  32. ↑ "American Academy of Arts & Sciences Elected Members, April 2016". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved October 8, 2016.
  33. ↑ "40 Academic Women Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences". WIA Report. August 23, 2016.
  34. ↑ AAAS Honors Accomplished Scientists as 2018 Elected Fellows, American Association for the Advancement of Science, November 27, 2018
  35. ↑ Doucet, Andrea; Mauthner, Natasha S. (2007). "Chapter 5: Feminist Methodologies and Epistemology". In Clifton D., Bryant; Peck, Dennis L. (eds.). 21st century sociology : a reference handbook. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. ISBN   978-1-4129-1608-0 . Retrieved October 8, 2016.
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