The Role of Non-Epistemic Values in the Epistemic Assessment of Scientific Theories

Mehdi Golshani has argued that religious beliefs not only direct scientific researches and the applications of science, but have a key role in justification and assessment of fundamental scientific theories. Mikael Stenmark agrees with Golshani only upon the first claim, but has his counterarguments against his second averment. In this article, attempts have been made to demonstrate that the non-epistemic values, such as religious ones, have an indirect role in assessing scientific theories. To do that, the thesis of transient underdetermination and its use in the case of quantum mechanics with the standard interpretation and Bohmian mechanics will be employed.