Empirical-analytic sciences secretly carry a technical cognitive interest masked as value-freedom.

Evidence

First, the empirical-analytic sciences’ claim to have a monopoly of scientific rationality and objectivity was deprived of the argument that they were value-free. They, too, had an objective life-reference, which had simply ceased to be noticed by scientists and philosophers of science because it was the most obvious thing in the world. The fact that this forgetfulness was so marked in the case of the technical cognitive interest could be explained by the consequences of capitalist modernization. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2423

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces ‘technical cognitive interest’ and the idea that value-neutral science masks a hidden life-reference.
• XREF: This is core Habermas epistemology of technical vs. emancipatory cognitive interests; connects to his later two-track theory of knowledge interests and the critique of positivism. — connects to: Empirical research method inherently negates the coherent significance a final report must claim. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2118; Positivists’ calculative thinking is itself interest-laden and not value-free. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 752; Technical rationalization hides who benefits from the machinery. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 689 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Technical performativity now shapes what counts as scientific truth. #expands (0.88) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 344
• Value-free area studies masks the ideological claim that the knower does not constitute knowledge #exemplifies (0.86) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 761
• Technical rationalization hides who benefits from the machinery. #expands (0.85) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 689
• Intellectuals must admit ideology rather than claim value-free science #expands (0.85) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 435
• Galilean science masks its pre-scientific practical basis behind an illusion of autonomous truth. #exemplifies (0.84) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 601
• Value-free scientific posture masks scholars’ ties to state power #qualifies (0.82) — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 322
• Scholarly theoretical lenses can actively conceal social reality rather than reveal it #expands (0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3491
• Science’s value-freedom dismantled normative barriers to genocidal co-operation #qualifies (0.78) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 315
• major applied-science discoveries come at the cost of diminished theoretical awareness #expands (0.75)