Abstract

The paper addresses an interesting discussion that has arisen in the history of philosophy of science in the last years. It deals with the political development of philosophy of science in the 20th century. It has been argued, in particular by George Reisch, that philosophy of science, once a highly political enterprise, was strongly depoliticized during the cold war in the USA. Over the following decades, the idea of value neutrality as the only guarantor of scientific objectivity was broadly held in this traditionally analytical field of philosophical research. Yet since the late 1980s and during the 1990s, social-epistemological and feminist philosophers of science have begun to tackle this idea by new political and social arguments. Accordingly, I argue that after a long nonpolitical period there has been a development in philosophy of science towards involving g political considerations and methods again. The increasing acceptance of pluralistic concepts in theories of philosophy of science indicate how philosophy of science has gradually been repoliticized. Moreover, it seems possible to draw some interesting conclusions regarding the split between continental and analytical philosophy from this new perspective.