The Value of Disinterestedness

Disinterestedness as an ideology within the natural sciences — described as ‘curiosity-based research’ — serves to protect the natural scientists from the social consequences of his discoveries. Disinterestedness as an ideology in the social sciences seeks to inoculate the social scientist’s attempts to influence society from claims of partisanship. And what of the humanities? Disinterestedness became an ideology that described the value of being useless to social functions, Stanley Fish representing the reduction ad absurdum of this position.