1. Exploring Dimensions of Epistemic Intimidation
In cooperation with M. Fernández Pinto (Bogotá)
Funded by the DFG (Oct 21 – Sept 24)
Scientists, just like journalists, politicians, and intellectuals investigating and stressing the importance and recalcitrance of social and environmental problems such as anthropogenic climate change or the issues of sexism and racism, have increasingly come under attack by right-wing populists in democratic countries. These attacks are regularly framed as nothing more than normal instances of criticism: populists invoke freedom of speech and praise the epistemic value of controversies. Indeed, the free exchange of opinions is actually essential for epistemic advancement. However, justifying such attacks on the grounds of free speech seems highly questionable. Rather, under this pseudo-idealistic guise, the attacks appear to be aimed more towards stifling unwanted opinions and manipulating public debates in service of certain political aims.
The project’s core aim is a clearer understanding of the systematic intimidation of scientists and how it affects scientific practice. Systematic means that such intimidation is planned and structured by powerful political, economic, or industrial actors striving to defend their privileged positions. An “atmosphere of intimidation” for science is created, as climate scientist Michael Mann has described the situation. As a consequence, it becomes normal for scientists in targeted research fields to fear that they will be attacked when they emphasize and defend certain positions or even just address certain research questions. This affects the dynamics of scientific practice and, thus, epistemic progress in science.
We will examine what knowledge we miss due to these attacks. In what ways do such attacks affect the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge? And what can we do about it? These questions have recently gained increasing empirical and practical attention. However, there is still an urgent need for analytically clarifying philosophical work on the problem. By presenting an initial philosophical analysis of the problem, the project aims to close this gap.
2. Transformations of Science and Technology since 1800: Topics, Processes, Institutions
Since 2022, I have been a PI in the DFG Research Training Group (Graduiertenkolleg) 2696 “Transformations of Science and Technology since 1800: Topics, Processes, Institutions” at Bergische Universität Wuppertal. I am currently supervising two PhD theses within this research training group, one by Jeremias Düring and the other by Charlotte Poller.