Fact and Value

Abstract

There is a view of science, as stereotyped in the hands of its critics debating with its advocates, that science deals only in facts. Values come in only when decisions are made as to how the facts of science are to be applied. Often it is added that this second stage is no special concern of scientists, though this is an optional addition. This chapter examines what sense can be made of the first part of this story—that science deals only in facts. It looks at the concept of rape in evolutionary psychology and inflation in economics.