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Abstract

Helen Longino has proposed four criteria that can objectively criticize the background beliefs and assumptions in the development of scientific theories. She deduces that the criteria - ‘recognized avenues for criticism,’ ‘shared standards,’ ‘community response’ and ‘equality of intellectual authority’ - are mutually dependent. Using the assumption that the acceptance of more than one scientific approach is possible only if an individual is educated in a non-standard background, and is given intellectual authority which, in turn, refutes the idea of standardization in science, I argue that her assertion is contradictory. One of her criterion ‘shared standards’ implicitly nullifies the attempt to embrace points of view from various other perspectives, based on the difference of cultures and intellectual backgrounds - ‘equality of intellectual authority’ in the scientific community.

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