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Sex Inequality and Bias in Sex Differences Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Alison M. Jaggar
Alison M. Jaggar*
Affiliation:
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH45221, U.S.A.
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Extract

The relationship of philosophy to science is a matter of long historical dispute. Philosophy has been described variously as the mother, the queen or the handmaiden of science, depending on whether the philosopher’s role was perceived as that of giving birth to science, of regulating and legitimating scientific discourse or of clearing the conceptual underbrush in the way of scientific advance. This essay, by contrast, is grounded on a conception of philosophy and science as partners or sisters, perhaps even as Siamese twin sisters, both proceeding from the same impulse to understand ourselves and the world and to change both for the better. Occasionally relations between philosophy and science have been marred by sibling rivalry, with each sister claiming the right to control and limit the pretensions of the other. In fact, however, philosophy and science are interdependent and ultimately inseparable. To borrow a famous slogan from another context: science without philosophy is blind; philosophy without science is empty.

Type
I—Two Aspects: Science and Morality
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy Supplementary Volume , Volume 13: Science, Morality & Feminist Theory , 1987 , pp. 24 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 1987

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Footnotes

*

This paper was prepared for a symposium on Bias in Sex Differences Research, held at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Chicago, 14-18 February, 1987.

References

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