Objectivity and Diversity

Increasing diversity in research institutions as well as in their surrounding societies is beginning to transform the very standards for good work and thus for what should count as desirable scientific achievements. The ideal of objectivity is the focus of this entry. The first three sections look at what social justice movements have found problematic with conventional standards for objective research, and how their diversity projects have created stronger, more comprehensive, and more reliable such standards. By refusing to conflate disinterest with reliability, they have created “strong objectivity,” as some refer to it. The fourth section examines related transformations in this research ideal created by historical changes in observational technologies and by distinctive national and cultural differences. Objectivity has a history, it turns out. Thus, ...