{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\uc1 \deff0\deflang1033\deflangfe1033{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fcharset0\fprq2{\*\panose 02020603050405020304}Times New Roman;}{\f1\fswiss\fcharset0\fprq2{\*\panose 020b0604020202020204}Arial;} {\f759\froman\fcharset238\fprq2 Times New Roman CE;}{\f760\froman\fcharset204\fprq2 Times New Roman Cyr;}{\f762\froman\fcharset161\fprq2 Times New Roman Greek;}{\f763\froman\fcharset162\fprq2 Times New Roman Tur;} {\f764\froman\fcharset177\fprq2 Times New Roman (Hebrew);}{\f765\froman\fcharset178\fprq2 Times New Roman (Arabic);}{\f766\froman\fcharset186\fprq2 Times New Roman Baltic;}{\f767\fswiss\fcharset238\fprq2 Arial CE;} {\f768\fswiss\fcharset204\fprq2 Arial Cyr;}{\f770\fswiss\fcharset161\fprq2 Arial Greek;}{\f771\fswiss\fcharset162\fprq2 Arial Tur;}{\f772\fswiss\fcharset177\fprq2 Arial (Hebrew);}{\f773\fswiss\fcharset178\fprq2 Arial (Arabic);} {\f774\fswiss\fcharset186\fprq2 Arial Baltic;}}{\colortbl;\red0\green0\blue0;\red0\green0\blue255;\red0\green255\blue255;\red0\green255\blue0;\red255\green0\blue255;\red255\green0\blue0;\red255\green255\blue0;\red255\green255\blue255;\red0\green0\blue128; \red0\green128\blue128;\red0\green128\blue0;\red128\green0\blue128;\red128\green0\blue0;\red128\green128\blue0;\red128\green128\blue128;\red192\green192\blue192;}{\stylesheet{\ql \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang1033\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp1033\langfenp1033 \snext0 Normal;}{\*\cs10 \additive Default Paragraph Font;}{\s15\qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx450\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 \f1\fs22\lang1033\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp1033\langfenp1033 \sbasedon0 \snext15 Body Text;}{\s16\qj \fi210\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx450\tx578\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 \f1\fs22\lang1033\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp1033\langfenp1033 \sbasedon0 \snext16 Body Text 2;}}{\info{\author Leroy F. Searle} {\operator Leroy F. Searle}{\creatim\yr2000\mo11\dy28\hr23\min39}{\revtim\yr2003\mo10\dy2\hr9\min54}{\version5}{\edmins8}{\nofpages15}{\nofwords8217}{\nofchars-32766}{\*\company University of Washington}{\nofcharsws0}{\vern8203}}\margl1440\margr1440 \widowctrl\ftnbj\aenddoc\noxlattoyen\expshrtn\noultrlspc\dntblnsbdb\nospaceforul\hyphcaps0\horzdoc\dghspace120\dgvspace120\dghorigin1701\dgvorigin1984\dghshow0\dgvshow3\jcompress\viewkind1\viewscale100\nolnhtadjtbl \fet0\sectd \sbknone\linex0\headery1440\sectdefaultcl {\*\pnseclvl1\pnucrm\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxta .}}{\*\pnseclvl2\pnucltr\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxta .}}{\*\pnseclvl3\pndec\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxta .}}{\*\pnseclvl4 \pnlcltr\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxta )}}{\*\pnseclvl5\pndec\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxtb (}{\pntxta )}}{\*\pnseclvl6\pnlcltr\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxtb (}{\pntxta )}}{\*\pnseclvl7\pnlcrm\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxtb (} {\pntxta )}}{\*\pnseclvl8\pnlcltr\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxtb (}{\pntxta )}}{\*\pnseclvl9\pnlcrm\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxtb (}{\pntxta )}}\pard\plain \ql \li0\ri0\sl-385\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tqdec\tx1678\tx4189\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang1033\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp1033\langfenp1033 {\f1\fs34 \tab \tab Objectivity,\line \tab }{\b\f1\fs86 \tab }{\f1\fs34 Theory Choice\line \tab \tab Value Judgment, and \par }\pard \qj \li4217\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx4217\faauto\rin0\lin4217\itap0 {\f1\fs22 Previously unpublished Machette Lecture, delivered at Furman Uni\-versity, 30 November 1973. \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx4217\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \par \par \par \par \par \par \par \par \par \par \par \par \par \par \par \par \par }\pard \qj \li1077\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx1077\faauto\rin0\lin1077\itap0 {\fs22 In the penultimate chapter of a controversial book first published fifteen years ago, I consid ered the ways scientists are brought to abandon one time-honored theory or paradigm in favor of another. Such decision problems, I wrote, \'93cannot be resolved by proof.\'94 To discuss their mechanism is, therefore, to talk \'93 about techniques of persuasion, or about argument and counterargument in a situa\-tion in which there can be no proof.\'94 Under these circumstances, I continued, \'93lifelong resistance [to a new theory] }{\f1\fs8 . .. }{\fs22 is not a viola\- tion of scientific standards. }{\f1\fs8 . . . }{\fs22 Though the historian can always find men\emdash Priestley, for instance\emdash who were unreasonable to re\-sist for as long as they did, he will not find a point at which re\- sistance becomes illogical or unscientific.\'94\rquote Statements of that sort obviously raise the question of why, in the absence of binding cri\-teria for scientific choice, both the number of solved scientific prob\- lems and the precision of individual problem solutions should in\-crease so markedly with the passage of time. Confronting that issue, I sketched in my closing chapter a number of cha racteristics that scientists share by virtue of the training which licenses their mem\-bership in one or another community of specialists. In the absence of criteria able to dictate the choice of each individual, I argued, \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx1077\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\fs22 \par }\pard \qj \fi-233\li1525\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx1292\tx1525\faauto\rin0\lin1525\itap0 {\fs18 1.\tab }{\i\fs18 The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, }{\fs18 2d }{\fs22 ed. }{\f1\fs22 (Chicago, }{\fs18 1970), pp. \par }\pard \qj \li1099\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx1099\faauto\rin0\lin1099\itap0 {\f1\fs22 148, 151\emdash 32, }{\fs18 159. All the passages from which these fragments are taken \par appeared in the same form in the first edition, published in 1962. \par \par \par \par \par \par \par \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx2460\tqr\tx12171\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \tab Objectivity, Value Judgment and Theory Choice 321\tab }{\f1\fs94 \emdash \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx204\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 we }{\fs22 do well }{\f1\fs22 to trust }{\fs22 the collective }{\f1\fs22 judgment }{\fs22 of }{\f1\fs22 scientists trained in this way. \'93 What better criterion could there be,\'94 I asked rhetori\-cally, \'93than the decision of the scientific group?\'94}{\f1\fs22\super 2}{\f1\fs22 \par }\pard \qj \fi226\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx226\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 A number of philosophers have greeted remarks like these in a way that continues to surprise me. My views, it is said, make of theory choice \'93 a matter for mob psychology.\'94}{\f1\fs22\super 3 }{\f1\fs22 Kuhn believes, I am told, that \'93the decision of a scientific group to adopt a new paradigm cannot be based on good reasons of any kind, factual or otherwise.\'94}{\f1\fs22\super 4 }{ \f1\fs22 The debates surrounding such choices must, my critics claim, be for me \'93mere persuasive displays without deliberative substance..\'94}{\f1\fs22\super 5 }{\f1\fs22 Reports of this sort manifest total misunderstanding, and I have occasionally said as much in papers directed primarily to other ends. But those passing protestations have had negligible effect, and the misunderstandings continue to be important. I con\- clude that it is past time for me to describe, at greater length and with greater precision, what has been on my mind when I have ut\-ter ed statements like the ones with which I just began. If I have been reluctant to do so in the past, that is largely because I have preferred to devote attention to areas in which my views di\- verge more sharply from those currently received than they do With respect to theory choice. \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx226\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \par }\pard \qj \fi221\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx221\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 What, I ask to begin with, are the characteristics of a good scien\- tific theory? Among a number of quite usual answers I select five, not because they are exhaustive, but because they are individually important and collectively sufficiently varied to indicate what is at stake. First, a theory should be accurate: within its domain, that is, consequences deducible from a theory should be in demon\-strated agreement with the results of existing experiments and ob\- servations. Second, a theory should be consistent, not only inter- \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx221\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \par }\pard \qj \fi-544\li731\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx187\tx731\faauto\rin0\lin731\itap0 {\fs18 2.\tab Ibid., p. 170. \par }\pard \qj \fi175\li0\ri0\sl-209\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx175\tx731\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\fs18 3.\tab Imr\'e9 Lakatos. \'93Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Re\-search Programmes,\'94 in I. Lakatos }{\f1\fs22 and }{\fs18 A. Musgrave, eds., } {\i\fs18 Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge }{\fs18 (Cambridge, 1970), pp. 9 1\emdash 195. The quoted phrase, which appears on p. 178, is italicized in the original. \par 4.\tab Dudley Shapere, \'93Meaning and Scientific Change,\'94 in R. G. Colodny. }{\f1\fs22 ed., }{\i\fs18 Mind and Cosmos: E.trays in Contemporary Science and Philosophy. }{\fs18 University of Pittsburgh Series in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 3 (Pitts \-burgh, 1966), pp. }{\i\fs18 41\emdash 85. }{\fs18 The quotation will be found on p. 67. \par 5.\tab Israel Scheffler, }{\i\fs18 Science and Subjectivity }{\fs18 (Indianapolis, 1967), p. 81 \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx6122\tx11406\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs34 \tab I\tab }{\i \emdash \par \par \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx204\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 322 Metahistorical Studies \par \par \par \par \par \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx368\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 nally or with itself, but also with other currently accepted theories applicable to related aspects of nature. Third, it should have broad scope: in particular, a theory \rquote s consequences should extend far beyond the particular observations, laws, or subtheories it was initially designed to expla in. Fourth, and closely related, it should be simple, bringing order to phenomena that in its absence would be individually isolated and, as a set, confused. Fifth\emdash a somewhat less standard item, but one of special importance to actual scien\- tific decisions\emdash a theory should be fruitful of new research find\-ings: it should, that is, disclose new phenomena or previously unnoted relationships among those already known.}{\f1\fs22\super 6 }{\f1\fs22 These five characteristics\emdash accuracy, consistency, scope, simplicity, and fruit\-fulness\emdash are al l standard criteria for evaluating the adequacy of a theory. If they had not been, I would have devoted far more space to them in my book, for I agree entirely with the traditional view that they play a vital role when scientists must choose between an es tablished theory and an upstart competitor. Together with others of much the same sort, they provide }{\i\fs22 the }{\f1\fs22 shared basis for theory choice. \par }\pard \qj \fi221\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx221\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 Nevertheless, two sorts of difficulties are regularly encountered by the men who must use these criteria in choosing, say, between Ptolemy\rquote s astronomical theory and Copernicus\rquote s, between the oxy\-gen and phlogiston theories of combustion, or between Newtonian mechanics and the quantum theory. Individually the criteria are imprecise: individuals may legitimately differ about their applica\- tion to concrete cases. In addition, when deployed together, they repeatedly prove to conflict with one another; accuracy may, for example, dictate the choice of one theory, scope the choice of its competitor. Since these difficulties, especi ally the first, are also rela\-tively familiar, I shall devote little time to their elaboration. Though my argument does demand that I illustrate them briefly, my views will begin to depart from those long current only after I have done so. \par Begin with accuracy, which for present purposes I take to in\-clude not only quantitative agreement but qualitative as well. Ulti\-- \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx221\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \par }\pard \qj \fi187\li0\ri0\sl-215\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx187\tx1542\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\fs18 6.\tab The last criterion, fruitfulness, deserves more emphasis than it has yet received. A scientist choosing between two theories ordinarily k nows that his decision will have a bearing on his subsequent research career. Of course he is especially attracted by a theory that promises the concrete successes for which scientists are ordinarily rewarded. \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx187\tx1542\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\fs20 \par }\pard \qj \li2522\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx2522\faauto\rin0\lin2522\itap0 {\f1\fs22 Objectivity, Value Judgment, and Theory Choice 323 \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx2522\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \par \par \par \par }\pard\plain \s15\qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx450\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 \f1\fs22\lang1033\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp1033\langfenp1033 { mately it proves the most nearly decisive of all the criteria, partly because it is less equivocal than the others but especially because predictive and explanatory powers, which depend on it, are char\-acteristics that scientists are particularly unwilling to give up. Un\-fortunately, however, theories cannot always be discriminated in terms of accuracy. Copernicus\rquote s system, for example, was not more accurate than Ptolemy\rquote s until drastically revised by Kepler more than sixty years after Copernicus\rquote s death. If Kepler or someone else had not found other reasons to choose heliocentric astronomy, those improvements in accuracy would never have been made, and Copernitus \rquote s work might have been forgotten. More typically, of course, accuracy does permit discriminations, but not the sort that lead regularly to unequivocal choice. The oxygen theory, for ex\- ample, was universally acknowledged to account for observed weight relations in chemical reactions, something the phlogiston theory had previously scarcely attempted to do. But the phlogiston theory, unlike its rival, could account for the metals\rquote being much more alike than the ores from which they were formed. One theory thus matched experience better in one area, the other in another. To choose between them on the basis of accuracy, a scientist would need to decide the area in which accuracy was more significant. About that matter chemists could and did differ without violating any of the criteria outlined above, or any others yet to be sug\-gested. \par }\pard\plain \s16\qj \fi210\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx450\tx578\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 \f1\fs22\lang1033\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp1033\langfenp1033 {However i mportant it may be, therefore, accuracy by itself is seldom or never a sufficient criterion for theory choice. Other cri\-teria must function as well, but they do not eliminate problems. To illustrate I select just two\emdash consistency and simplicity \emdash asking how they functioned in the choice between the heliocentric and geocentric systems. As astronomical theories both Ptolemy\rquote s and Copernicus\rquote s were internally consistent, but their relation to related theories in other fields was very different. The stationary ce ntral earth was an essential ingredient of received physical theory, a tight-knit body of doctrine which explained, among other things, how stones fall, how water pumps function, and why the clouds move slowly across the skies. Heliocentric astronomy, whi ch re\-quired the earth\rquote s motion, was inconsistent with the existing scien\-tific explanation of these and other terrestrial phenomena. The consistency criterion, by itself, therefore, spoke unequivocally for the geocentric tradition. \par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx368\tx578\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang1033\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp1033\langfenp1033 {\fs20 \par }\pard \qj \fi583\li0\ri0\sl-243\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx583\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 324 Metahlstorical Studies \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-243\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx583\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \par \par \par \par }\pard \qj \fi221\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx1162\tx1383\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 Simplicity, however, favored Copernicus, but only when eval\- uated in a quite special way. If, on the one hand, the two systems were compared in terms of the actual computational labor required to predict the position of a planet at a particular tim e, then they proved substantially equivalent. Such computations were what as\-tronomers did, and Copernicus\rquote s system offered them no labor\-saving techniques; in that sense it was not simpler than Ptolemy\rquote s. If, on the other hand, one asked about the amount of mathematical apparatus required to explain, not the detailed quantitative mo\-tions of the planets, but merely their gross qualitative features\emdash limited elongation, retrograde motion, and the like\emdash then, as every schoolchild knows, Copernicus required onl y one circle per planet, Ptolemy two. In that sense the Copernican theory was the simpler, a fact vitally important to the choices made by both Kepler and Galileo and thus essential to the ultimate triumph of Copernican\- ism. But that sense of simplicity was not the only one available, nor even the one most natural to professional astronomers, men whose task was the actual computation of planetary position. \par Because time is short and I have multiplied examples elsewhere, I shall here simply assert that these difficulties in applying standard criteria\rquote of choice are typical and that they arise no less forcefully in twentieth-century situations than in the earlier and better-known examples I have just sketched. When scientists must choose be\-tween competing theo ries, two men fully committed to the same list of criteria for choice may nevertheless reach different conclu\- sions. Perhaps they interpret simplicity differently or have different convictions about the range of fields within which the consistency criterio n must be met. Or perhaps they agree about these matters but differ about the relative weights to be accorded to these or to other criteria when several are deployed together. With respect to divergences of this sort, no set of choice criteria yet propose d is of any use. One can explain, as the historian characteristically does, why particular men made particular choices at particular times. But for that purpose one must go beyond the list of shared criteria to characteristics of the individuals who make t he choice. One must, that is, deal with characteristics which vary from one scien\-tist to another without thereby in the least jeopardizing their ad\- herence to the canons that make science scientific. Though such canons do exist and should be discoverable (doubtless the criteria \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx2675\tqr\tx12171\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \tab Objectivity, Value Judgment, and Theory Choice 325\tab }{\f1\fs94 \emdash \par \par \par \par \par \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx204\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 of choice with which I began are among them), they are not by themselves sufficient to determine the decisions of individual scien\- tists. For that purpose the shared canons must be fleshed out in ways that differ from one individual to another. \par }\pard \qj \fi221\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx221\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 Some of the differences I have in mind result from the individ\-ual\rquote s previous experience as a scientist. In what part of the field was he at work when confronted by the need to choose? How long had he worked there; how successful had he been; and how much of his work depended on concepts and techniques challenged by the new theory? Other factors relevant to choice lie outside the sciences. Kepler\rquote s early election of Copernicanism was due in part to his immersion in the Neoplatonic and Hermetic movements of his day; German Romanticism predisposed those it affected toward both recognition and acceptance of energy conservation; nine\- teenth-century British social thought had a similar influence on the availability and acceptability of Darwin\rquote s concept of the struggle for existence. Still other significant differences are functions of per\- sonality. Some scientists place more premium than others on orig\-inality and are correspondingly more willing to take risks; some scientists prefer comprehensive, unified theories to precise and de\- tailed problem solutions of apparently narrower scope. Differen\-tiating factors like these are described by my critics as subjective and are contrasted with the shar ed or objective criteria from which I began. Though I shall later question that use of terms, let me for the moment accept it. My point is, then, that every individual choice between competing theories depends on a mixture of ob\- jective and subjective factors, or of shared and individual criteria. Since the latter have not ordinarily figured in the philosophy of science, my emphasis upon them has made my belief in the former hard for my critics to see. \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx221\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \par }\pard \qj \fi221\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx221\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 What I have said so far is primarily simply descriptiv e of what goes on in the sciences at times of theory choice. As description, furthermore, it has not been challenged by my critics, who reject instead my claim that these facts of scientific life have philosophic import. Taking up that issue, I shall begi n to isolate some, though I think not vast, differences of opinion. Let me begin by asking how philosophers of science can for so long have neglected the sub\-jective elements which, they freely grant, enter regularly into the \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx221\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\fs20 \par }\pard \qj \li748\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx748\faauto\rin0\lin748\itap0 {\f1\fs22 326 Metahistorical Studies \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx748\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \par \par \par \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx1252\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 actual theory choices made by individual scientists? Why have these elements seemed to them an index only of human weakness, not at all of the nature of scientific knowledge? \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx1252\tx1474\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 One answer to that question is, of course, that few philosophers, if any, have c laimed to possess either a complete or an entirely well-articulated list of criteria. For some time, therefore, they could reasonably expect that further research would eliminate residual imperfections and produce an algorithm able to dictate rational, un a nimous choice. Pending that achievement, scientists would have no alternative but to supply subjectively what the best current list of objective criteria still lacked. That some of them might still do so even with a perfected list at hand would then be an index only of the inevitable imperfection of human nature. \par That sort of answer may still prove to be correct, but I think no philosopher still expects that it will, The search for algorithmic decision procedures has continued for some time and produced bot h powerful and illuminating results. But those results all pre\-suppose that individual criteria of choice can be unambiguously stated and also that, if more than one proves relevant, an appro\- priate weight function is at hand for their joint application. Unfor\- tunately, where the choice at issue is between scientific theories, little progress has been made toward the first of these desiderata and none toward the second. Most philosophers of science would, therefore, I think, now regard the sort of algorithm which has tra\-ditionally been sought as a not quite attainable ideal. I entirely agree and shall henceforth take that much for granted. \par Even an ideal, however, if it is to remain credible, requires some demonstrated relevance to the situations in which it is supposed to apply. Claiming that such demonstration requires no recourse to subjective factors, my critics seem to appeal, implicitly or ex\-plicitly, to the well-known distinction between the contexts of dis\-covery and of justification.}{ \f1\fs22\super 7 }{\f1\fs22 They concede, that is, that the subjec\- tive factors I invoke play a significant role in the discovery or invention of new theories, but they also insist that that inevitably intuitive process lies outside of the bounds of philosophy of science and is irrelevant to the q uestion of scientific objectivity. Objectivity enters science, they continue, through the processes by which the- \par \par \par }\pard \qj \fi261\li1281\ri0\sl-215\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx1281\tx1542\tx1700\faauto\rin0\lin1281\itap0 {\fs18 7.\tab The least equivocal example of this position is probably the one de\-veloped in Scheffler, }{\i\fs18 Science and Subjectivity, }{\fs18 chap. 4. \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx2675\tqr\tx12171\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \tab Objectivity, Value Judgment, and Theory Choice 327\tab }{\f1\fs94 \emdash \par \par \par \par \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx204\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 ones are tested, justified, or judged. Those processes do not, or at least need not, involve subjective factors at all. They can be gov\- erned by a set of (objective) criteria shared by the entire group competent to judge. \par }\pard \qj \fi226\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx226\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 I have already argued that that position does not fit observations of scientific life and shall now assume that that much has been conceded. What is now at issue is a different point: whether or not this invocation of the distinction between co ntexts of discovery and of justification provides even a plausible and useful idealization. I think it does not and can best make my point by suggesting first a likely source of its apparent cogency. I suspect that my critics have been misled by science p edagogy or what I have elsewhere called textbook science. In science teaching, theories are presented to\-gether with exemplary applications, and those applications may be viewed as evidence. But that is not their primary pedagogic func\- tion (science students are distressingly willing to receive the word from professors and texts). Doubtless }{\i\fs20 some }{\f1\fs22 of them were }{\i\fs22 part }{\f1\fs22 of the evidence at the time actual decisions were being made, but they represent only a fraction of the considerations relevant to the de\-cision pr ocess. The context of pedagogy differs almost as much from the context of justification as it does from that of discovery. \par Full documentation of that point would require longer argument than is appropriate here, but two aspects of the way in \lquote which phi\-los ophers ordinarily demonstrate the relevance of choice criteria are worth noting. Like the science textbooks on which they are often modelled, books and articles on the philosophy of science refer again and again to the famous crucial experiments: Foucault \rquote s pendulum, which demonstrates the motion of the earth; Caven\-dish\rquote s demonstration of gravitational attraction; or Fizeau\rquote s mea\- surement of the relative speed of sound in water and air. These experiments are paradigms of good reason for scientific choice; they illustrate the most effective of all the sorts of argument which could be available to a scientist uncertain which of two theories to follow; they are vehicles for the transmission of criteria of choice. But they also have another characteristic in c ommon. By the time they were performed no scientist still needed to be convinced of the validity of the theory their outcome is now used to demonstrate. Those decisions had long since been made on the basis of signifi\- cantly more equivocal evidence. The exemplary crucial experi\-ments to which philosophers again and again refer would have been \par }\pard \qc \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx226\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs34 I \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx226\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs34 \par \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx204\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 328 Metahistorleal Studies \par \par \par \par \par }\pard \qj \fi583\li0\ri0\sl-243\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx583\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 historically relevant to theory choice only if they had yielded un\-expected results. Their use as illustrations provides needed econ\- omy to science pedagogy, but they scarcely illuminate the char\-acter of the choices that scientists are called upon to make. \par }\pard \qj \fi232\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx232\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 Standard philosophical illustrations of scientific choice have an\-other troublesome characteristic. The only arguments discussed ar e, as I have previously indicated, the ones favorable to the theory that, in fact, ultimately triumphed. Oxygen, we read, could explain weight relations, phlogiston could not; but nothing is said about the phlogiston theory\rquote s power or about the oxygen theory\rquote s limita\-tions. Comparisons of Ptolemy\rquote s theory with Copernicus\rquote s proceed in the same way. Perhaps these examples should not be given since they contrast a developed theory with one still in its infancy. But philosophers regularly use them nonetheless. If the only result of their doing so were to simplify the decision situation, one could not object. Even historians do not claim to deal with the full factual complexity of the situations they describe. But these simplifications emasculate by making choic e totally unproblematic. They elimi\- nate, that is, one essential element of the decision situations that scientists must resolve if their field is to move ahead. In those situations there are always at least some good reasons for each possible choice. Consi derations relevant to the context of discov\- ery are then relevant to justification as well; scientists who share the concerns and sensibilities of the individual who discovers a new theory are ipso facto likely to appear disproportionately frequently among that theory\rquote s first supporters. That is why it has been diffi\-cult to construct algorithms for theory choice, and also why such difficulties have seemed so thoroughly worth resolving. Choices that present problems are the ones philosophers of science need to un\- derstand. Philosophically interesting decision procedures must func\-tion where, in their absence, the decision might still be in doubt. \par }\pard \qj \fi226\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx226\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 That much I have said before, if only briefly. Recently, however, I have recognized another, subtler source for the apparent plausi\-bility of my critics\rquote position. To present it, I shall briefly describe a hypothetical dialogue with one of them. Both of us agree that each scientist chooses between competing theories by deploying some Bayesian algorithm which permits him to compute a value for }{\i\fs22 p(T,E), }{\fs22 i.e., for }{\f1\fs22 the probability of a theory }{\b\i\fs22 T }{\f1\fs22 on the evidence }{\i\fs22 E }{\f1\fs22 available both to him and to the other members of his professional group at a particular period of time. \'93Evidence,\'94 furthermore, we \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx226\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\fs20 \par }\pard \qj \li2596\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx2596\faauto\rin0\lin2596\itap0 {\f1\fs22 Objectivity, Value Judgment, and Theory Choice 329 \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx2596\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \par \par \par \par }\pard \qj \li419\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx419\faauto\rin0\lin419\itap0 {\f1\fs22 both interpret broadly to include such considerations as simplicity and fruitfulness. My critic asserts, however, that there is only one such value of p, that corresponding to objective choice, and he be\-lieves that all rational m embers of the group must arrive at it. I assert, on the other hand, for reasons previously given, that the factors he calls objective are insufficient to determine in full any algorithm at all. For the sake of the discussion I have conceded that each indi vidual has an algorithm and that all their algorithms have much in common. Nevertheless, I continue to hold that the al\-gorithms of individuals are all ultimately different by virtue of the subjective considerations with which each must complete the ob\- jective criteria before any computations can be done. If my hypo\- thetical critic is liberal, he may now grant that these subjective differences do play a role in determining the hypothetical algorithm on which each individual relies during the early stages of the com\- petition between rival theories. But he is also likely to claim that, as evidence increases with the passage of time, the algorithms of different individuals converge to the algorithm of objective choice with which his presentation began. For him t he increasing unanim\-ity of individual choices is evidence for their increasing objectivity and thus for the elimination of subjective elements from the de\-cision process. \par }\pard \qj \fi244\li430\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx430\tx674\faauto\rin0\lin430\itap0 {\f1\fs22 So much for the dialogue, which I have, of course, contrived to disclose the non sequitur underlying an apparently plausible posi\- tion. What converges as the evidence changes over time need only be the values of p that individuals compute from their individual algorithms. Conceivably those algorithms themselves also become more alike with time, but the ultimate unanimity of theory choice provides no evidence whatsoever that they do so. If subjective fac\- tors are required to account for the decisions that initially divide the profession, they may still be present later when the profession a grees. Though I shall not here argue the point, consideration of the occasions on which a scientific community divides suggests that they actually do so. \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx430\tx674\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \par }\pard \qj \fi244\li430\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx430\tx674\faauto\rin0\lin430\itap0 {\f1\fs22 My argument has so far been directed to two points. It first pro\-vided evidence that the choices scie ntists make between competing theories depend not only on shared criteria\emdash those my critics call objective\emdash but also on idiosyncratic factors dependent on indi\-vidual biography and personality. The latter are, in my critics\rquote \par }{\fs18 330 }{\f1\fs22 Metahistorical Studies \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx430\tx674\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \par }\pard \qj \li6876\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx6876\faauto\rin0\lin6876\itap0 {\b\f1\fs50 I \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx204\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 vocabulary, subjective, and the second part of my argument has at\-tempted to bar some likely ways of denying their philosophic im\- port. Let me now shift to a more positive approach, returning briefly to the list of shared criteria\emdash accuracy, simplicity, and the like\emdash with which I began. The considerable effectiveness of such criteria does not, I now wish to suggest, depend on their being sufficiently articulated to dictate the choice of each individual who subscribes to them. Indeed, if they were articulated to that extent, a behavior mechanism fundamental to scientific advance would cease to function. What the tradition sees as eliminable imperfec\-tions in its rules of choice I take to be in part responses to the essential nature of science. \par }\pard \qj \fi226\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx226\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 As so often, I begin with the obvious. Criteria that influence de\- cisions without specifying what those decisions must be are familiar in many aspects of human life. Ordinarily, however, they are called, not criteria or rules, but maxims, norms, or values. Consider max\-ims fi rst. The individual who invokes them when choice is urgent usually finds them frustratingly vague and often also in conflict one with another. Contrast \'93He who hesitates is lost\'94 with \'93Look be\-fore you leap,\'94 or compare \'93 Many hands make light work\'94 with \'93Too \lquote many cooks spoil the broth.\'94 Individually maxims dictate different choices, collectively none at all. Yet no one suggests that supplying children with contradictory tags like these is irrelevant to their education. Opposing maxims alter the nature of the de\- cision to be made, highlight the essential issues it presents, and point to those remaining aspects of the decision for which each individual must take responsibility himself. Once invoked, maxims like these alter the nature of the decision process a nd can thus change its outcome. \par Values and norms provide even clearer examples of effective guidance in the presence of conflict and equivocation. Improving the quality of life is a value, and a car in every garage once fol\-lowed from it as a norm. But qua lity of life has other aspects, and the old norm has become problematic. Or again, freedom of speech is a value, but so is preservation of life and property. In applica\- tion, the two often conflict, so that judicial soul-searching, which still continues, has been required to prohibit such behavior as in\- citing to riot or shouting fire in a crowded theater. Difficulties like these are an appropriate source for frustration, but they rarely re\-sult in charges that values have no function or in calls for their \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx2590\tqr\tx12171\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \tab Objectivity, Value Judgment, and Theory Choice 331\tab \emdash \par \par \par \par \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx204\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 abandonment. That response is barred to most of us by an acute consciousness that there are societies with other values and that these value differences result in other ways of life, other decisions about what may and what may not be done. \par }\pard \qj \fi226\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx226\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 I am suggesting, of course, that the criteria of choice with which I began function not as rules, which determine, choice, but as values, which influence it. Two men deeply committed to the same values may neverthe less, in particular situations, make different choices as, in fact, they do. But that difference in outcome ought not to suggest that the values scientists share are less than critically important either to their decisions or to the development of the ent erprise in which they participate. Values like accuracy, consis\-tency, and scope may prove ambiguous in application, both indi\-vidually and collectively; they may, that is, be an insufficient basis for a }{\i\fs22 shared }{\f1\fs22 algorithm of choice. But they do specify a great deal: \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx204\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 what each scientist must consider in reaching a decision, what he may and may not consider relevant, and what he can legitimately be required to report as the basis for the choice he has made. Change the list, for example by adding social utility as a criterion, and some particular choices will be different, more like those one expects from an engineer. Subtract accuracy of fit to nature from the list, and the enterprise that results may not resemble science at all, but perhaps philosophy instead. Different creative disciplines are characterized, among other things, by different sets of shared values. If philosophy and engineering lie too close to the sciences, think of literature or the plastic arts. Milton\rquote s failure to set }{\i\fs22 Para \-dise }{\i\fs20 Lost }{\f1\fs22 in a Copernican universe does not indicate that he agreed with Ptolemy but that he had things other than science to do. \par }\pard \qj \fi226\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx226\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 Recognizing that criteria of choice can function as values when incomplete as rules has, I think, a number of striking advantages. First, as I ha ve already argued at length, it accounts in detail for aspects of scientific behavior which the tradition has seen as anom\- alous or even irrational. More important, it allows the standard criteria to function fully in the earliest stages of theory choice, the period when they are most needed but when, on the traditional view, they function badly or not at all. Copernicus was responding to them during the years required to convert heliocentric astron\- omy from a global conceptual scheme to mathematical machinery for predicting planetary position. Such predictions were what as\-tronomers valued; in their absence, Copernicus would scarcely \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx6122\tx11406\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs34 \tab I\tab }{\f1\fs22 \emdash \par \par \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx204\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 332 Metahistorical Studies \par \par \par \par \par }\pard \qj \fi487\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx487\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 have been heard, something which had happened to the idea of a moving earth before. Tha t his own version convinced very few is less important than his acknowledgment of the basis on which judgments would have to be reached if heliocentricism were to sur\- vive. Though idiosyncrasy must be invoked to explain why Kepler and Galileo were early converts to Copernicus\rquote s system, the gaps filled by their efforts to perfect it were specified by shared values alone. \par }\pard \qj \fi226\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx226\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 That point has a corollary which may be more important still. Most newly suggested theories do not survive. Usually the diffi\-culties that evoked them are accounted for by more traditional means. Even when this does not occur, much work, both theoreti\- cal and experimental, is ordinarily required before the new theory can display sufficient accuracy and scope to generate widespread conviction. In short, before the group accepts it, a new theory has been tested over time by the research of a number of men, some working within it, others within its traditional rival. Such a mode of development, however, }{\i\fs22 requires }{\f1\fs22 a decision process which per\-mits rational men to disagree, and such disagreement would be barred by the shared algorithm which philosophers have generally sought. If it were at hand, all conforming scientists would make the same decision at the same time. With standards for acceptance se t too low, they would move from one attractive global viewpoint to another, never giving traditional theory an opportunity to supply equivalent attractions. With standards set higher, no one satisfying the criterion of rationality would be inclined to try out the new theory, to articulate it in ways which showed its fruitfulness or displayed its accuracy and scope. I doubt that science would sur\- vive the change. What from one viewpoint may seem the looseness and imperfection of choice criteria conceived as r ules may, when the same criteria are seen as values, appear an indispensable means of spreading the risk which the introduction or support of novelty always entails. \par Even those who have followed me this far will want to know how a value-based enterprise of the sort I have described can de\-velop as a science does, repeatedly producing powerful new tech\- niques for prediction and control. To that question, unfortunately, I have no answer at all, but that is only another way of saying that I make no claim to ha ve solved the problem of induction. If science did progress by virtue of some shared and binding algorithm of \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx2556\tqr\tx12171\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \tab Objectivity, Value Judgment, and Theory Choice 333\tab }{\f1\fs94 \emdash \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx204\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 choice, I would be equally at a loss to explain its success. The lacuna is one I feel acutely, but its presence does not differentiate my position from the tradition. \par }\pard \qj \fi226\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx226\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 It is, after all, no accident that my list of the values guiding sci\-entific choice is, as nearly as .makes any difference, identical with the tradition\rquote s list of rules dictating choice. Given any concrete situation to which the philosopher\rquote s rules could be applied, my values would function like his rules, producing the same choice. Any justification of induction, any explanation of why the rules worked, would apply equally to my values. Now consider a situa\- tion in which choice by shared rules proves impossible, not be\-cause the rules are Wrong but because they are, as rules, intrin\-sically incomplete. Individuals must then still choose and be guided by the rules (now values) when they do so, For that pur \-pose, however, each must first flesh out the rules, and each will do so in a somewhat different way even though the decision dictated by the variously completed rules may prove unanimous. If I now assume, in addition, that the group is large enough so that indi\-vidual differences distribute on some normal curve, then any argu\-ment that justifies the philosopher\rquote s choice by rule should be im\- mediately adaptable to my choice by value. A group too small, or a distribution excessively skewed by external historical pressures, would, of course, prevent the argument\rquote s transfer.}{\f1\fs22\super 8 }{\f1\fs22 But those are just the circumstances under which scientific progress is itself prob\-lematic. The transfer is not then to be expected. \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx226\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \par }\pard \qj \fi181\li0\ri0\sl-215\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx181\tx793\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\fs18 8.\tab If the group is small, it is more likely that random fluctuations will re\-sult in its members\rquote sharing an atypical set of values and therefore making choices different from those that would be made by a larger and more representative group. External environment\emdash intellectual, ideological, or economic\emdash must systematically affect the value system of much larger groups, and the consequences can include difficulties in introducing the sci\-entific enterprise to societies with inimical values or perhaps even the end of that enterprise within societies where it had once flourished. In this area. however, great caution is required. Changes in the environment where sci\- ence is practiced can also have fruitful effects on research. Historians often resort, for example, to differences between nation al environments to explain why particular innovations were initiated and at first disproportionately pursued in particular countries, e.g., Darwinism in Britain, energy con\- servation in Germany. At present we know substantially nothing about the minimum requisites of the social milieux within which a sciencelike enter\-prise might flourish. \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx720\tqr\tx12171\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \tab 334 Metahlstorical Studies\tab \emdash \par \par \par \par \par }\pard \qj \fi226\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx226\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 I shall be glad if these references to a normal distribution of in\-dividual differences and to the problem of induction make my posi\-tio n appear very close to more traditional views. With respect to theory choice, I have never thought my departures large and have been correspondingly startled by such charges as \'93mob psychol\-ogy,\'94 quoted at the start. It is worth noting, however, that the po\- sitions are not quite identical, and for that purpose an analogy may be helpful. Many properties of liquids and gases can be accounted for on the kinetic theory by supposing that all molecules travel at the same speed. Among such properties are the regul arities known as Boyle\rquote s and Charles\rquote s law. Other characteristics, most obviously evaporation, cannot be explained in so simple a way. To deal with them one must assume that molecular speeds differ, that they are distributed at random, governed by the laws of chance. What I have been suggesting here is that theory choice, too, can be ex\-plained only in part by a theory which attributes the same proper\- ties to all the scientists who must do the choosing. Essential aspects of the process generally known as ve rification will be understood only by recourse to the features with respect to which men may differ while still remaining scientists. The tradition takes it for granted that such features are vital to the process of discovery, which it at once and for \lquote that reason rules out of philosophical bounds. That they may have significant functions also in the philo\-sophically central problem of justifying theory choice is what phi\-losophers of science have to date categorically denied. \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx226\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \par }\pard \qj \fi226\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx226\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 What remains to be said can be grouped in a somewhat miscel\- laneous epilogue. For the sake of clarity and to avoid writing a book, I have throughout this paper utilized some traditional con\-cepts and locutions about the viability of which I have elsewhere expressed serious doubts. For those who know the work in which I have done so, I close by indicating three aspects of what I have said which would better represent my views if cast in other terms, simultaneously indicating the main directions in which such recast\- ing should proceed. The areas I have in mind are: value in\-variance, subjectivity, and partial communication. If my views of scientific development are novel\emdash a matter about which there is legitimate room for doubt\emdash it is in areas such as these, rather than theory choice, that my main departures from tradition should be sought. \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx226\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx2522\tqr\tx12171\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \tab Objectivity, Value Judgment, and Theory ChoIce 335\tab }{\f1\fs94 \emdash \par }\pard \qj \fi226\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx226\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 Throughout this paper I have implicitly assumed that, whatever their initial source, the criteria or values deployed in theory choice are fixed once a nd for all, unaffected by their participation in tran\- sitions from one theory to another. Roughly speaking, but only very roughly, I take that to be the case. If the list of relevant values is kept short (I have mentioned five, not all independent) and if their specification is left vague, then such values as accuracy, scope, and fruitfulness are permanent attributes of science. But little knowledge of history is required to suggest that both the applica\- tion of these values and, more obviously, the relative weights at\- tached to them have varied markedly with time and also with the field of application. Furthermore, many of these variations in value have been associated with, particular changes in scientific theory. Though the experience of scientists provid es no philosophical jus\-tification for the values they deploy (such justification would solve the problem of induction), those values are in part learned from that experience, and they evolve with it. \par The whole subject needs more study (historians have usu ally taken scientific values, though not scientific methods, for granted), but a few remarks will illustrate the sort of variations I have in mind. Accuracy, as a value, has with time increasingly denoted quantitative or numerical agreement, sometimes at t he expense of qualitative. Before early modern times, however, accuracy in that sense was a criterion only for astronomy, the science of the celestial region. Elsewhere it was neither expected nor sought. During the seventeenth century, however, the crite rion of numerical agreement was extended to mechanics, during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to chemistry and such other subjects as elec\- tricity and heat, and in this century to many parts of biology. Or think of utility, an item of val ue not on my initial list. It too has figured significantly in scientific development, but far more strongly and steadily for chemists than for, say, mathematicians and physi\- cists. Or consider scope. It is still an important scientific value, but important scientific advances have repeatedly been achieved at its expense, and the weight attributed to it at times of choice has diminished correspondingly. \par What may seem particularly troublesome about changes like these is, of course, that they ordinarily occur in the aftermath of a theory change. One of the objections to Lavoisier\rquote s new chem\- istry was the roadblocks with which it confronted the achievement \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx720\tqr\tx12171\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \tab 336 Metahistorical Studies\tab \emdash \par \par \par \par \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx204\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 of what had previously been one of chemistry\rquote s traditional goals: \par the explanation of qualities, such as color and texture, as well as of their changes. With the acceptance of Lavoisier\rquote s theory such ex\- planations ceased for some time to be a value for chemists; the ability to explain qualitative variation was no longer a crite rion relevant to the evaluation of chemical theory. Clearly, if such value changes had occurred as rapidly or been as complete as the theory changes to which they related, then theory choice would be value choice, and neither could provide justification f or the other. But, historically, value change is ordinarily a belated and largely uncon\-scious concomitant of theory choice, and the former\rquote s magnitude is regularly smaller than the latter\rquote s. For the functions 1 have here ascribed to values, such relative stability provides a sufficient basis. The existence of a feedback loop through which theory change affects the values which led to that change does not make the de\- cision process circular in any damaging sense. \par }\pard \qj \fi226\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx226\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 About a second respect in which my resort to tradition may be misleading, I must be far more tentative. It demands the skills of an ordinary language philosopher, which I do not possess. Still, no very acute ear for language is required to generate discomfort with the ways in which the terms \'93 objectivity\'94 and, more especially, \'93subjectivity\'94 have functioned in this paper. Let me briefly suggest the respects in which I believe language has gone astray. \'93Subjec\-tive\'94 is a term with several established uses: in one of these it is opposed to \'93objective,\'94 in another to \'93judgmental.\'94 When my critics describe the idiosyncratic features to which I appeal as sub\- jective, they resort, erroneously I think, to the second of these senses. When they complain that I deprive science of objectivity, they conflate that second sense of subjective with the first. \par A standard application of the term \'93subjective\'94 is to matters of taste, and my critics appear to suppose that that is what I have made of theory choice. But they are missing a distinction standard since Kant when they do so. Like sensation reports, which are also subjective in the sense now at issue, matters of taste are undiscuss\-able. Suppose that, leaving a movie theater with a friend after see\-ing a western, I exclaim: \'93 How I liked that terrible potboiler!\'94 My friend, if he disliked the film, may tell me I have low tastes, a matter about which, in these circumstances, I would readily agree. But, short of saying that I lied, he cannot disagree with my report that I liked the film or try to persuade me that what I said about \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx2488\tqr\tx12171\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \tab Objectivity, Value Judgment, and Theory ChoIce 337\tab }{\f1\fs94 \emdash \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx204\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 my reaction was wrong. What is discussable in my remark is not my characterization of my internal state, my exemplification of taste, but rather my }{\i\fs22 judgment }{ \f1\fs22 that }{\fs22 the film was }{\f1\fs22 a potboiler. Sh ould my friend disagree on that point, we may argue most of the night, each comparing the film with good or great ones we have seen, each revealing, implicitly or explicitly, something about how he }{\i\fs18 judges }{\f1\fs22 cinematic merit, about his aesthetic. Though one of us may, before retiring, have persuaded the other, he need not have done so to demonstrate that our difference is one of judgment, not taste. \par }\pard \qj \fi226\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx226\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 Evaluations or choices of theory have, I think, exactly this char\-acter. Not that scientists never say merely, I like such and such a theory, or I do not. After 1926 Einstein said little more than that about his opposition to the quantum theory. But scientists may always be asked to explain their choices, to exhibit the bases for their judgments. Such judgments are e minently discussable, and the man who refuses to discuss his own cannot expect to be taken seriously. Though there are, very occasionally, leaders of scientific taste, their existence tends to prove the rule. Einstein was one of the few, and his increasin g isolation from the scientific community in later life shows how very limited a role taste alone can play in theory choice. Bohr, unlike Einstein, did discuss the bases for his judgment, and he carried the day. If my critics introduce the term \'93 subjective\'94 in a sense that opposes it to judgmental\emdash thus suggest\-ing that I make theory choice undiscussable, a matter of taste\emdash they have seriously mistaken my position. \par }\pard \qj \fi215\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx215\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 Turn now to the sense in which \'93subjectivity\'94 is opposed to \'93objectivity,\'94 and note first that it raises issues quite separate from those just discussed. Whether my taste is low or refined, my report that I liked the film is objective unless I have lied. To my judgment that the film was a potboiler, however, the objective-subjective dis\- tinction does not apply at all, at least not obviously and directly. When my critics say I deprive theory choice of objectivity, they must, therefore, have recourse to some very different sense of sub\- jective, presumably the one in which bias and personal likes or dis\-likes function instead of, or in the face of, the actual facts. But that sense of subjective does not fit the process I have been de\- scribing any better than the first. Where factors dependent on in\-dividual biography or personality must be introduced to make val\- ues applicable, no standards of factuality or actuality are being set aside. Conceivably my discussion of theory choice indicates some \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx215\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\fs20 \par }\pard \qj \li776\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx776\faauto\rin0\lin776\itap0 {\f1\fs22 338 Metahistorical Studies \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx776\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \par \par \par \par }\pard \qj \fi360\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx0\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 limitations of objectivity, but not by isolating elements properly called subjec tive. Nor am I even quite content with the notion that what I have been displaying are limitations. Objectivity ought to be analyzable in terms of criteria like accuracy and consistency. If these criteria do not supply all the guidance that we have custom \-arily expected of them, then it may be the meaning rather than the limits of objectivity that my argument shows. \par }\pard \qj \fi360\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx0\tx1553\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 Turn, in conclusion, to a third respect, or set of respects, in which this paper needs to be recast. I have assumed throughout that the discuss ions surrounding theory choice are unproblematic, that the facts appealed to in such discussions are independent of theory, and that the discussions\rquote outcome is appropriately called a choice. Elsewhere I have challenged all three of these assumptions, argu ing that communication between proponents of different theories is inevitably partial, that what each takes to be facts depends in part on the theory he espouses, and that an individual\rquote s transfer of allegiance from theory to theory is often better described as con\- version than as choice. Though all these theses are problematic as well as controversial, my commitment to them is undiminished. I shall not now defend them, but must at least attempt to indicate how What I have said here can be adjusted to confo rm with these more central aspects of my view of scientific development. \par For that purpose I resort to an analogy I have developed in other places. Proponents of different theories are, I have claimed, like native speakers of different languages. Communication between them goes on by translation, and it raises all translation \rquote s familiar difficulties. That analogy is, of course, incomplete, for the vocabu\-lary of the two theories may be identical, and most words function in the same ways in both. But some wor ds in the basic as well as in the theoretical vocabularies of the two theories\emdash words like \'93star\'94 and \'93planet,\'94 \'93mixture\'94 and \'93compound,\'94 or \'93force\'94 and \'93matter\'94\emdash do function differently. Those differences are unex\-pected and will be discovered and localized, if at all, only by re\- peated experience of communication breakdown. Without pursuing the matter further, I simply assert the existence of significant limits to what the proponents of different theories can communicate to one another. The same limits make it difficult or, more likely, im\-possible for an individual to hold both theories in mind together and compare them point by point with each other and with nature. \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx2369\tqr\tx12171\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 \tab Objectivity, Value Judgment, and Theory Choice }{\b\f1\fs18 339\tab }{\f1\fs94 \emdash \par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\nowidctlpar\tx204\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 That sort of comparison is, however, the process on which the appropriateness of any word like \'93choice\'94 depends. \par }\pard \qj \fi226\li0\ri0\sl-249\slmult0\nowidctlpar\tx226\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f1\fs22 Nevertheless, despite the incompleteness of their communication, proponents of different theories can exhibit to each other, not al\- ways easily, the concrete technical results achi evable by those who practice within each theory. Little or no translation is required to apply at least some value criteria to those results. (Accuracy and fruitfulness are most immediately applicable, perhaps followed by scope. Consistency and simplicity are far more problematic.) How\- ever incomprehensible the new theory may be to the proponents of tradition, the exhibit of impressive concrete results will persuade at least a few of them that they must discover how such results are achieved. For that purpo se they must learn to translate, perhaps by treating already published papers as a Rosetta stone or, often more effective, by visiting the innovator, talking with him, watching him and his students at work. Those exposures may not result in the adoption o f the theory; some advocates of the tradition may return home and attempt to adjust the old theory to produce equivalent results. But others, if the new theory is to survive, will find that at some point in the language-learning process they have ceased to translate and begun instead to speak the language like a native. No process quite like choice has occurred, but they are practicing the new theory nonetheless. Furthermore, the factors that have led them to risk the conversion they have undergone are just the ones this paper has underscored in discussing a somewhat different process, one which, following the philosophical tradition, it has labeled theory choice. \par }}