Contribution
An encyclopedia survey, written by one of the positions it surveys. For this record it is the first-hand statement of Longino’s view, standing in for her two books, and a map of the alternatives.
Key insight
Objectivity is not a property of a method that an individual can apply alone. It is a property of how a community handles criticism. A community whose criticism has no venue, no uptake, hidden standards or excluded voices is not objective, however capable its members.
Assumptions
- The underdetermination argument: a “semantic gap” between data and hypothesis that only background assumptions bridge, and assumptions at the end of the chain for which no evidence is available (§5).
- “There is no higher authority or transcendent aperspectival position from which it is possible to adjudicate among foundational assumptions” (§5).
Key results
Conceptual, not formal:
- Four norms (§5): (1) venues for critical interaction; (2) uptake, “demonstrated in change of belief distribution in the community over time in a way that is sensitive to the critical discourse”; (3) public accessibility of the standards that regulate discourse; (4) tempered equality of intellectual authority, a prima facie standing that can be lost “owing to failure to engage or to respond to criticism”.
- 2002 extension: observation and reasoning are themselves social, so the norms govern research in progress, not only finished work.
- Contrast with Solomon: Solomon locates rationality in the distribution of decision vectors and the acceptance of empirically successful theories, “regardless of the interactions among community members”; Longino attends to deliberation.
Claims
| id | claim | strength | support |
|---|---|---|---|
| C1 | Background assumptions mediate all evidential relations, so no individual method secures objectivity | moderate | the underdetermination argument, stated not defended at length in the entry |
| C2 | Criticism makes a community objective only under the four norms | moderate | argued in the books; stated here |
| C3 | Zollman “proves” that sparse networks are more reliable | weak | the entry’s wording; the source is a simulation study (LIT-724) |
| C4 | Zollman’s effect disappears for larger groups or more distinct alternatives | strong | reports LIT-733, read separately and consistent |
Concepts
- critical contextual empiricism — empiricism in which evidential relations are fixed relative to background assumptions, and the legitimacy of those assumptions comes from community criticism under norms.
- uptake — criticism changing what the community believes over time, in response to the criticism.
- tempered equality — equal prima facie standing for perspectives, forfeitable by not engaging.
Connections
The entry places Longino with Mill, Peirce and Popper on criticism and supplies “conditions for the efficacy” of what they advocated. It sets her against Solomon’s social empiricism, Kitcher’s credit models and Goldman’s veritistic social epistemology.
Bearing on the record
Source of THEORY-151. The owner’s essay (§8.2) applies Longino to corporate self-governance: an organization of conscientious employees may lack “the institutional capacity to make their criticism consequential”. That is norm (2), uptake, and the essay’s list of what the capacity depends on (information pathways, evaluative practices, standing rights to challenge, revision procedures) maps onto norms (1), (3) and (4). The essay does not name the norms; naming them would give §8.2 a test instead of a suggestion.
Longino’s norms are about a community’s knowledge, not about its action or will. Carrying them from knowing to governing is an extension the essay makes, and should argue.
Limitations
Written by a party to the debate. The entry states Longino’s view and its rivals; it does not adjudicate them, and the objections to tempered equality are mentioned (“perhaps the most controversial”) but not given.
Open questions
Whether the norms can be measured in an actual institution, and whether an institution meeting them in fact tracks truth better. Neither is addressed here.