That’s a really exacting question; I’ll be sure to look over my notes before giving you a response.
The feminists went into the study trying to develop a theory that did a better job in accounting for observed phenomena. If we can agree that their resultant conclusion was the better of the two, then we needn’t occupy ourselves with the last three of your questions.
I think neutrality is unattainable. Nelson goes slightly further than I, though I believe we’re “on the same page”, so to speak.
Duly noted.
I agree in that we can’t just “choose”; the issue is far subtler: the scientific discourse operates within certain boundaries, and under certain restrictions. These restrictions work to legitimate that kind of knowledge scientific research produces, while negating or “refusing entry” to the rest. These restrictions are intrinsic to the discourse: they consist of the “rules” of science, as you’ve said: who can produce knowledge, under what conditions, through what process, after how much verification, in what context, for what purpose, etc.
I think, generally speaking, rules rooted in the ontological tyranny are currently considered essential to proper inquiry. These can be changed, and I think they must be changed, as I’ve said. In short: the discourse needs to be allowed to grow and change.
I know I’m being vague, but that’s not what I’m suggesting: this is a topic that currently interests me, one that I’m currently working through an understanding and conceptualization of. My stance isn’t concrete. However, I am suggesting that science understands itself, and so allows itself to be reproduced, in a certain way: this understanding seems to me to be rooted in the tyranny of ontology. It is this understanding of itself that provides a framework for the scientific discourse as well as, in turn, the restrictions that constitute such a discourse. To overcome this understanding is to alter the discourse and so change the rules of legitimation: it is to change the way science is allowed to be done, the way knowledge is allowed to be produced.