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Here she is, Ms. American Philosopher
On July 13th, 1944 in Jacksonville, Florida, one of the greatest living American philosophers, Helen Longino, was born. Helen has spent her career arguing the significance of values and social interactions to scientific exploration. She has written about the roles of women in the field of science and is a major influence in feminist epistemology and social epistemology. (epistemology: the philosophical study of the nature, origin, and limits of human knowledge. "theory of knowledge") -
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Early Life Education
Received her BA from Barnard College in 1966. Helen then attended Sussex University where she obtained her MA in Philosophy of Science and finally her PhD from John Hopkins University in 1973. -
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Career
While working on her PhD from John Hopkins University, Helen was assistant professor at the University of California-San Diego from 1971 to 1975. She then went from assistant professor to associate professor at Mills College in Oakland from 1975 to 1990. She continued her career as a professor at Rice University in Houston from 1990 to 1995, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis from 1995 to 2005 and lastly at Stanford University where she has been since 2005 as professor in philosophy. -
Science as Social Knowledge
In 1990, Helen published her first book Science as Social Knowledge. She argued that researched data and observations from scientists was not enough evidence to support or go against a hypothesis from being factual. She believed that human beliefs, assumptions and full justification of scientific theories that also bridged the gap to legitimate reasoning would decide on a hypothesis to be true and factual. -
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Honors, Awards, and Achievements
Helen received the best book award in both 2002 and 2014 for Studying Human Behavior (2013) and Fate of Knowledge (2002). She served as President of the philosophy of Science Association from 2013 to 2014. In 2019 she was awarded the distinguished teaching award from Phi Beta Kappa Beta of California in 2019 and the Romanell Prize from the American Philosophical Association in 2020. -
Fate of Knowledge
In 2002, Helen published her second book, Fate of Knowledge. Longino argues the content of knowledge is plural and bridges the gap between philosophers and sociologists of science with scientific perspective from all sides. -
Studying Human Behavior (2013)
Helen's third book, Studying Human Behavior, was published in 2013. In this book, she brings attention to the idea that different perspectives can actually produce more thoroughly informed decisions on accepting science and conclusion as true. She highly discourages accepting science without the perspectives and opinions of others. -
Video!
I could not find a short video about Helen, however found an excellent recording of one of her lectures on perspectives. Please find the time to enjoy :) https://youtu.be/631gObE7ctA -