Reading the "Problem of Evaluation" in Social Inquiry

Abstract

Current uncertainty in the social sciences surrounding efforts to represent social reality, the cultural authority of social science, and the legitimacy and validity of its knowledge claims, is due, in part, to debate about the moral and political meaning of social inquiry practices. Although this is by no means a new debate, it has been brought to the foreground in recent years through developments in feminist philosophy, critical theory, and practical hermeneutics. To encourage further discussion of the relationship between empirical and normative aspects of inquiry practices, this article provides three readings of the landscape of values: ways of conceiving of the moral life, impediments to public discussion of values in professional practice, and treatment of values in a specific practice of social inquiry.