Contextual empiricism

Contextual empiricism is the thesis, developed by Helen Longino, that scientific objectivity is not achieved by eliminating social values from research but by subjecting value-laden background assumptions to critical scrutiny from diverse standpoints within the scientific community. The 'context' in contextual empiricism refers to the institutional, methodological, and social setting in which knowledge is produced — a setting that constrains which questions can be asked, which methods count as valid, and which results achieve uptake. The view rejects both the myth of the value-free observer and the relativist conclusion that all knowledge is merely local; instead, it locates objectivity in the social topology of criticism — the density, diversity, and transformative potential of the feedback loops through which a community tests its own assumptions.