Any adequate analysis or (if I may use the term) rational reconstruction of the method of science must comprise the statement that the scientist qua scientist accepts or rejects hypotheses; and further that an analysis of that statement would reveal it to entail that the scientist qua scientist makes value judgments.
ATTRIBUTION:
Richard Rudner (1922–1979), U.S. philosopher of science. repr. in Introductory Readings in the Philosophy of Science, pp. 231-237, eds. Klemke, Hollinger, and Kline (1953). Originally published in Philosophy of Science, XX, “The Scientist Qua Scientist Makes Value Judgments,” (1953).
Denying a popular tenet of positivism and reintroducing into philosophy of science a theme originally emphasized by Max Weber.
