How scientific plurality and sociality enhance scientific objectivity

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• Helen Longino (Stanford University)
• Thursday 23 October 2025, 15:30-17:00
• Babbage Lecture Theatre, New Museums Site.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Ahmad Elabbar.

Second Annual Mary Hesse Lecture

We are urged to trust science because it is objective. Efforts to support the objectivity of scientific inquiry, however, often make assumptions that ultimately fuel skepticism about the very possibility of such objectivity. One is a commitment to scientific monism: the idea that scientific inquiry, properly pursued, should result in a single, comprehensive, account of a given domain or even of the natural world, tout court. A second is commitment to any of a variety of Individualist epistemologies, all informed by the principle that scientific knowledge is the outcome of cognitive processes realized by single individuals. Abandoning monism and individualism may complicate our conception of objectivity. Nevertheless, embracing pluralism and the sociality of knowledge in their stead enables a more robust account of the trustworthiness of science.

This talk is part of the Mary Hesse Lecture series.

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