-
65Biological effects of low level radiation: Values, dose-response models, risk estimatesSynthese 81 (3). 1989.Predictions about the health risks of low level radiation combine two sorts of measures. One estimates the amount and kinds of radiation released into the environment, and the other estimates the adverse health effects. A new field called health physics integrates and applies nuclear physics to cytology to supply both these estimates. It does so by first determining the kinds of effects different types of radiation produce in biological organisms, and second, by monitoring the extent of these ef…Read more
-
65Foregrounding the BackgroundPhilosophy of Science 83 (5): 647-661. 2016.Practice-centric and theory-centric approaches in philosophy of science are described and contrasted. The contrast is developed through an examination of their different treatments of the underdetermination problem. The practice-centric approach is illustrated by a summary of comparative research on approaches in the biology of behavior. The practice-centric approach is defended against charges that it encourages skepticism regarding the sciences.
-
65Whither philosophy of science?Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 36 (4): 774-778. 2005.A response to Philip Mirowski’s criticism of 20th century philosophy of science as in collusion with cold war US politics. Only a very narrow view of the work in our field could support such a critique.
-
64Theoretical Pluralism and the Scientific Study of BehaviorIn Stephen Kellert, Helen Longino & C. Kenneth Waters (eds.), Scientific Pluralism, University of Minnesota Press. pp. 102-31. 2006.
-
62In Search Of Feminist EpistemologyThe Monist 77 (4): 472-485. 1994.The proposal of anything like a feminist epistemology has, I think, two sources. Feminist scholars have demonstrated how the scientific cards have been stacked against women for centuries. Given that the sciences are taken as the epitome of knowledge and rationality in modern Western societies, the game looks desperate unless some ways of knowing different from those that have validated misogyny and gynephobia can be found. Can we know the world without hating ourselves? This is one of the quest…Read more
-
60InferringPhilosophy Research Archives 4 17-26. 1978.This paper is a discussion of the nature of inferring and focusses on the relation between reasons for belief and causes of belief. Two standard approaches to the analysis of inference, the epistemological and the psychological, are identified and discussed. While both approaches incorporate insights concerning, inference, counterexamples show that neither provides by itself an adequate account. A third account is developed and recommended on the grounds that it encompasses the essential insight…Read more
-
57Interpretation Versus Explanation in the Critique of ScienceScience in Context 10 (1): 113-128. 1997.
-
55Knowledge, bodies, and values: Reproductive technologies and their scientific contextInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 35 (3-4). 1992.This essay sets human reproductive technologies in the context of biological research exploiting the discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule in the early 1950s. By setting these technological developments in this research context and then setting the research in the framework of a philosophical analysis of the role of social values in scientific inquiry, it is possible to develop a perspective on these technologies and the aspirations they represent that is relevant to the concerns of the…Read more
-
53Scaling up; scaling down: What’s missing?Synthese 198 (4): 2849-2863. 2019.What are we trying to explain when we explain behavior? How is behavior conceptualized as an object of study and how else might it be conceptualized? Longino urges pluralism with respect to causes and explanations of behavior. This paper extends Longino’s analysis to the object of those explanations and urges pluralism with respect to behavior itself. The paper proposes that there are three ways in which behavior can be conceptualized, each of which opens to different kinds of research questions…Read more
-
53Review of Evelyn Fox Keller and Helen E. Longino: Feminism & Science (Oxford Readings in Feminism) (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 48 (4): 618-620. 1997.
-
52Alan Sokal's “transgressing boundariesInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 11 (2). 1997.No abstract
-
51
-
51This paper draws on the author's work in social epistemology and on comparative studies of sciences of human behavior to draw attention to the importance of interaction. Drawing further on recent and contemporary research in biology, she argues that interaction ought to be considered a distinct ontological category, not reducible to properties of its participants.
-
50Scientific Pluralism (edited book)University of Minnesota Press. 2006.Scientific pluralism is an issue at the forefront of philosophy of science. This landmark work addresses the question, Can pluralism be advanced as a general, philosophical interpretation of science? Scientific Pluralism demonstrates the viability of the view that some phenomena require multiple accounts. Pluralists observe that scientists present various—sometimes even incompatible—models of the world and argue that this is due to the complexity of the world and representational limitations. In…Read more
-
49Feminism and Philosophy: Perspectives on Difference and EqualityPhilosophical Review 102 (3): 405. 1993.Summarizes author’s contextual empiricism and uses it to analyze the difference between neuro-endocrinological accounts of presumed behavioral sex differences and neuro-selectionist accounts. Contextual empiricism is a philosophical approach that both shows how feminist critique works in the sciences and makes a contribution to general philosophy of science.
-
43Data, PleaseHopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 3 (1): 144-146. 2013.A call for serious study of the status of women in the philosophy of science subfield, study that goes beyond simple demographic data to more sophisticated bibliometric data that looks at inclusion in textbooks, citation patterns, the history of topic and idea attribution, etc.
-
43Gender, sexuality research, and the flight from complexityMetaphilosophy 25 (4): 285-292. 1994.Research on sexual orientation attempts to reduce it to a monocausal phenomenon, whether that be biology (genes, hormones) or social environment (parenting patterns). None of these fully accounts for the diversity of erotic attraction and behavior, and indeed these reductionist strategies either misrepresent many forms of sexual behavior or erase them from our ontology. Understanding is better served by first acknowledging the variety of roles of sexual interaction in human life, rather than t…Read more
-
43The Epistemic Life of Groups: Essays in the Epistemology of Collectives, Edited by Michael Brady and Miranda Fricker: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. vii + 255, £45 (review)Australasian Journal of Philosophy 96 (2): 401-404. 2018.
-
41Feminist Epistemology as a Local EpistemologyAristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 71 19-54. 1997.Feminist scholars advocate the adoption of distinctive values in research. While this constitutes a coherent alternative to the more frequently cited cognitive or scientific values, they cannot be taken to supplant those more orthodox values. Instead, each set might better be understood as a local epistemology guiding research answerable to different cognitive goals. Feminist scholars advocate the adoption of distinctive values in research. While this constitutes a coherent alternative to the…Read more
-
41Naturalism is often defined by reference to what it is not. The non-naturalisms to which naturalism is contrasted are a heterogeneous bunch. And what it is important not to be is a function of the particular concerns of a philosophical culture at a particular time. Most recently naturalism was taken to be science-based analysis. A survey of the sciences relevant to epistemology supports the pessimistic conclusion that none of them is ready to replace or even play a major role in informing philos…Read more
-
41What's So Great about an Objective Concept of Evidence?In Gregory J. Morgan (ed.), Philosophy of Science Matters: The Philosophy of Peter Achinstein, Oxford University Press. pp. 124. 2011.
-
40Feminist Epistemology as a Local EpistemologyAristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 71 19-54. 1997.
-
38Feminist EpistemologyIn John Greco & Ernest Sosa (eds.), The Blackwell Guide to Epistemology, Blackwell. 2017.Feminist epistemology is both a paradox and a necessity. Epistemology is a highly general inquiry – into the meaning of knowledge claims and attributions, into conditions for the possibility of knowledge, into the nature of truth and justification, and so on. Feminism is a family of positions and inquiries characterized by some common sociopolitical interests centering on the abolition of sexual and gender inequality. What possible relation could there be between these two sets of activity? Furt…Read more
-
38What's Really Wrong with Quantitative Risk Assessment?PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1986. 1986.Quantitative risk assessment suffers from a variety of problems--some internal and others external. Dale Hattis proposes that the problems of risk assessment can be cured by the development of risk assessment theory. I agree that theory can help address some of the internal problems, such as the failure to date to take the interaction of hazardous substances with other substances in the environment into account. I argue that the external problems such as the manipulation of inherent uncertaintie…Read more
-
30Who Knows: From Quine to a Feminist Empiricism by Lynn Hankinson Nelson (review)Isis 83 179-179. 1992.
-
27Beyond “Bad Science”: Skeptical Reflections on the Value-Freedom of Scientific InquiryScience, Technology, and Human Values 8 (1): 7-17. 1983.
Stanford, California, United States of America