How to trust a scientist

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Epistemic trust among scientists is inevitable. There are two questions about this: (1) What is the content of this trust, what do scientists trust each other for? (2) Is such trust epistemically justified? I argue that if we assume a traditional answer to (1), namely that scientists trust each other to be reliable informants, then the answer to question (2) is negative, certainly for the biomedical and social sciences. This motivates a different construal of trust among scientists and therefore a different answer to (1): scientists trust each other to only testify to claims that are backed by evidence gathered in accordance with prevailing methodological standards. On this answer, trust among scientists is epistemically justified.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)11-20
Number of pages10
JournalStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A
Volume93
Early online date2 Mar 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2022

Funding

Research for the paper was supported by a Vidi grant ( 276-20-024 ) from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and by a grant from Templeton World Charity Foundation . The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of NWO or the Templeton World Charity Foundation.

FundersFunder number
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
Templeton World Charity Foundation

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