FEMINIST PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND FEMINIST VALUE THEORY

How sharp is the dichotomy between facts and values? Clearly theyfunction in different ways in our thinking and in our lives, but how differently? Logical empiricists made a very sharp distinction based on the conviction that factual claims can be corrected by experience and values cannot. The sciences offer the most rigorous, methodical ways to verify and correct factual claims and accounts of our world, but since values cannot be falsified or verified, they lie outside the sciences. They must, therefore, be held “dogmatically” as expressions of opinion or emotion.