Interests And Epistemic Integrity In Science: A New Framework To Assess Interest Influences In Scientific Research Processes
by Jan De Winter /
2016 / English / PDF
3.3 MB Download
Scientific research is often influenced by financial
interests, political interests, or personal career interests of the
scientists involved. For instance, the pharmaceutical giant Merck
manipulated clinical trial data in order to make sure that data
confirmed the safety of one of its products, Vioxx, in order to
serve the company’s short-term commercial interests. This case is
obviously unacceptable. But why exactly is it unacceptable? One way
to account for this judgment is on the basis of the ideal of
purity. According to this ideal, scientific decision-making should
be pure— that is, unaffected by financial interests, political
interests, career interests, and so on. Although this ideal is
questionable, many people (including philosophers of science) still
hold on to it.
Scientific research is often influenced by financial
interests, political interests, or personal career interests of the
scientists involved. For instance, the pharmaceutical giant Merck
manipulated clinical trial data in order to make sure that data
confirmed the safety of one of its products, Vioxx, in order to
serve the company’s short-term commercial interests. This case is
obviously unacceptable. But why exactly is it unacceptable? One way
to account for this judgment is on the basis of the ideal of
purity. According to this ideal, scientific decision-making should
be pure— that is, unaffected by financial interests, political
interests, career interests, and so on. Although this ideal is
questionable, many people (including philosophers of science) still
hold on to it.In
InInterests
and Epistemic Integrity in Science: A New Framework to Assess
Interest Influences in Scientific Research Processes
Interests
and Epistemic Integrity in Science: A New Framework to Assess
Interest Influences in Scientific Research Processes,
Jan De Winter first argues that it is better to fully abandon the
ideal of purity, then proposes an alternative ideal to assess
interest influences in science: the ideal of epistemic integrity.
He spells out and systematically defends a new concept of epistemic
integrity, using it not only to analyze the Vioxx debacle, but also
to identify unacceptable interest influences in aerospace science,
climate science, and biology, and to explain exactly why these
interest influences are unacceptable. These analyses make a
compelling case for the new concept of epistemic integrity which
will be interesting and useful for philosophers of science,
scientists, engineers, science policymakers, and anyone else
concerned about the integrity of science.
,
Jan De Winter first argues that it is better to fully abandon the
ideal of purity, then proposes an alternative ideal to assess
interest influences in science: the ideal of epistemic integrity.
He spells out and systematically defends a new concept of epistemic
integrity, using it not only to analyze the Vioxx debacle, but also
to identify unacceptable interest influences in aerospace science,
climate science, and biology, and to explain exactly why these
interest influences are unacceptable. These analyses make a
compelling case for the new concept of epistemic integrity which
will be interesting and useful for philosophers of science,
scientists, engineers, science policymakers, and anyone else
concerned about the integrity of science.