Abstract
‘Is objectivity a form of honesty?’ looks at the claim that a feature of objectivity, one that establishes its standing as a central cultural value, is that it is a form of intellectual honesty. This is pursued via the question of the relation between scientific theories and evidence using examples from the work of Galileo and Arthur Eddington. Karl Popper's argument that scientific procedure is the standard of objectivity works on the assumption that in science it is a straightforward matter of comparing one's theories with the evidence. Thia relation is not straightforward; sometimes prior expectations may play a legitimate role, whereas sometimes they do not.