Science’s value-neutrality is itself a positive force that shapes specific social organization.

Evidence

True, the rationality of pure science is value-free and does not stipulate any practical ends, it is “neutral” to any extraneous values that may be imposed upon it. But this neutrality is a positive character. Scientific rationality makes for a specific societal organization precisely because it projects mere form (or mere matter—here, the otherwise opposite terms converge) which can be bent to practically all ends. Formalization and functionalization are, prior to all application, the “pure form” of a concrete societal practice. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 583

Categorization

• DEFINE: The distinction between ‘neutrality as absence of values’ and ‘neutrality as positive character’ is a core Marcusean move that recurs through the book.
• XREF: connects to: Scientific neutrality is itself metaphysical and masks domination — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 43

Broader Connections

• Scientific neutrality is itself metaphysical and masks domination #complicates (0.85) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 43