Is Science Value Free?

The idea that science is value free has been challenged over the years by a number of different sides, including: postmodernists, feminists, radical ecologists, Third World advocates and religious fundamentalists. In this book, Hugh Lacey appraises and explicates the view that science is value free. Lacey discusses how science and values interact, with a focus on a discussion of development, and science's place in development particularly in Third World countries. The book approaches this ongoing discussion in the following ways: by exploring the nature and meaning of values; discussing challenges to the view that science as value free is possible; and defining levels of scientific inquiry, bringing us closer to the possibility of an impartial ideal.