ABSTRACT
Natural science played a key role in setting people free. Science gained a stranglehold on truth, with its ideology of hard data versus subjective values. Value-free experimentalism in Enlightenment terms has defined the theory and practice of mainstream social science until today. Mill's philosophy of social science is built on a dualism of means and ends. Citizens and politicians are responsible for articulating ends in a free society and science is responsible for the know-how to achieve them. Science is amoral, speaking to questions of means but with no wherewithal or authority to dictate ends. Given his democratic liberalism, Mill advocates neutrality "out of concern for the autonomy of the individuals or groups" social science seeks to serve. Value-neutral science is accountable to ethical standards through rational procedures controlled by value-neutral academic institutions in the service of an impartial government. As Guba and Lincoln argue, the issues in social science ultimately must be engaged at the worldview level.
