The Natural Sciences — Perspectives, Paradigms, and Ethics

Although the natural sciences aim at objective knowledge, they are still a human activity shaped by history, community, and values. This lesson examines the role of perspective in science, the idea of paradigms, and the ethics of scientific knowledge.

Objectivity as an aspiration

Science aims at objectivity, knowledge that does not depend on any individual's preferences, and its methods (controlled experiment, quantification, peer review) are designed to filter out personal bias. Yet perfect neutrality is an ideal rather than a fully achieved state. Which questions get funded and studied, which data are noticed, and how results are interpreted are all influenced by the scientific community's assumptions and by wider social priorities. The honest view is that science's objectivity is a hard