…science has always been, and always will be, inextricable from the cultural matrix of power, prestige, and politics that is the source of its cultural authority. As such, science will always be in an important position to defend the status quo - whether it is the racial hygiene of Hitler, the Lamarckian genetics of Stalin, or the Anglo-American social Darwinism of the late nineteenth century. That doesn’t make it bad - any more than the discovery of antibiotics and microwaves makes science good. But it also doesn’t make science value neutral; rather, it makes science strongly value laden, and in ways that merit detailed examination.
—
Why I am Not a Scientist: Anthropology and Modern Knowledge (p 70) by Jonathan Marks
Science is a human endeavor, and thus it cannot be devoid of morality, responsibility, meaning, value, or self-interest. The opposite idea, that science transcends the values, interests, or politics of its practitioners, is largely a self-interested image developed in the twentieth century.
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