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One of the most widely agreed-upon tenets of the current 'postpositivist' consensus in sociological theory is the categorical dismissal of the pursuit of value neutrality in the social and natural sciences, a pursuit that is seen as both futile and undesirable. This dismissal is based on the rejection of the 'positivist' claim that mainstream scientific knowledge is in some sense more objectively valid than other forms of knowledge. But this results in a 'bias paradox:' on what basis can those denying the possibility of any value-neutral knowledge still claim validity for their own knowledge claims? In this paper, we analyze a series of attempts, broadly going under the label of 'standpoint theory,' to resolve the paradox. We show how each of these is seriously flawed and that efforts to repair those flaws have merely led to a covert return to the kind of 'positivism' the authors claim to reject. We conclude that this is the result of the persistent failure of 'critical' theorists of various stripes to recognize the fact that the 'positivist' ideals of value neutrality and objectivity embody the very principles of egalitarianism and democracy they claim to subscribe to., Author(s): Axel van den Berg [sup.1] , Tay Jeong [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.14709.3b, 0000 0004 1936 8649, Department of Sociology, McGill University, , 845 Sherbrooke Street West, H3A 2T7, [...]

MY MAIN CONCERN IS THAT if we reject value-neutrality as an ideal to strive for on the grounds that scientific knowledge is inevitably valueladen, inextricably intertwined with our social positioning, [...]

Responds to a critique of the authors' work by Jessica Davis. Enumerates and responds to each of Davis' critiques, arguing that many of them are invalid. Defends the research design choices made by the authors and the results of their study. (DSK)

Victor Nee and Richard Swedberg, eds., On Capitalism. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007, 368 pp. $US 24.95 paper (978-0-8047-5665-5), $US 70.00 hardcover (978-0-8047-5664-8) The chapters of this collection were [...]

Immanuel Wallerstein, The End of the World As We Know It: Social Science for the Twenty-First Century, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1999, 278 pp. For those who haven't [...]