Science and values

Society, science, and values.

Integrating Science and Human Values

The burden of cancer continues to increase globally, with substantial personal, societal, and economic consequences. Population growth and aging underlie this increase—a reflection of the effect of population health interventions in the last two centuries. Much of this gain has come through observation, derivation of evidence, and rigorous application of valid science to the public, both health...

Carrying capacity as "Informed Judgment": the values of science and the science of values.

Contemporary park and wilderness carrying capacity frameworks rely on formulation of standards of quality, which are defined as minimum acceptable resource and social conditions. Formulation of standards of quality involves elements of both science and values, and both of these elements must be integrated into informed judgments on the part of park and wilderness managers. That is, managers mus...

Bringing values and deliberation to science communication.

Decisions always involve both facts and values, whereas most science communication focuses only on facts. If science communication is intended to inform decisions, it must be competent with regard to both facts and values. Public participation inevitably involves both facts and values. Research on public participation suggests that linking scientific analysis to public deliberation in an iterat...

Science, Policy, and the Transparency of Values

BACKGROUND Opposing groups of scientists have recently engaged in a heated dispute over a preliminary European Commission (EC) report on its regulatory policy for endocrine-disrupting chemicals. In addition to the scientific issues at stake, a central question has been how scientists can maintain their objectivity when informing policy makers. OBJECTIVES Drawing from current ethical, conceptu...