Scientific objectivity with a human face

Holm Tetens

pp. 81-104

in: Martin Carrier, Johannes Roggenhofer, Günter Küppers, Philippe Blanchard (eds), Knowledge and the world, Berlin, Springer, 2004

Abstract

The paper deals with four consequences of the pragmatist's point of view that science is done by humans for humans and that we must, therefore, understand and describe how it is possible for us humans to do science and how we go about doing it. The four consequences are (1) the independence of reality as resistance, (2) the illusion of an unrestricted fallibilism, (3) intersubjectivity in sciences and the unavoidability of the expert dilemma, (4) the limits of explaining intersubjectivity.