Helen Longino - “What Can Epistemology Learn from Philosophy of Science?”

This paper distinguishes between an individualistic approach in social epistemology and a more social approach that highlights interaction.  It proposes that philosophy of science is the site of a more social approach than is to be found in mainstream social epistemology.  It further argues that the individualist approach misses epistemologically interesting phenomena that are made evident in consideration of scientific discursive practice.

Helen Longino is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at Stanford University and an affiliate of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Her teaching and research interests are in philosophy of science, social epistemology, and feminist philosophy. In addition to many articles, Longino is the author of Science As Social Knowledge (Princeton University Press, 1990), The Fate of Knowledge (Princeton University Press, 2001) and Studying Human Behavior, a study of the relationship between logical, epistemological, and social aspects of behavioral research (University of Chicago Press, 2013). She is C.I. Lewis Professor in Philosophy at Stanford University and recently completed her term as President of the Philosophy of Science Association.