Abstract

Emphasis on cutting edge science is common today. This paper shows that the concept, which selects some science at any given time as epistemically preferable and therefore better, actually gained acceptance by the turn of this century in biology and began immediately to have consequences for what biological research was done. The result, that some research is cut out while other work is privileged, can have pernicious results. Some of what is designated as not cutting edge may, in a different — and equally defensible epistemological framework, prove just as good as the officially cutting edge research. Cutting edges cut both ways, and those who study science should begin exploring the implications of that fact.