Steel Daniel, Gonnerman Chad, O'Rourke Michael
W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Canada.
Department of Philosophy, University of Southern Indiana, United States.
Stud Hist Philos Sci. 2017 Jun;63:22-30. doi: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2017.04.002. Epub 2017 Apr 22.
This article examines the relevance of survey data of scientists' attitudes about science and values to case studies in philosophy of science. We describe two methodological challenges confronting such case studies: 1) small samples, and 2) potential for bias in selection, emphasis, and interpretation. Examples are given to illustrate that these challenges can arise for case studies in the science and values literature. We propose that these challenges can be mitigated through an approach in which case studies and survey methods are viewed as complementary, and use data from the Toolbox Dialogue Initiative to illustrate this claim.
