Fellow project: "Science and Values"
My research project on science and values is focused on science in the context of application. The choice of topics in science and in part the criteria science uses for judging assumptions do not alone grow out of epistemic aspirations but are also affected by social or utilitarian values. Application-oriented research often proceeds in a framework of conflicting epistemic and utilitarian values. Research of this sort tackles problems according to their practical relevance, and not in order to advance a theoretical approach or to extend the domain of a method or measuring procedure. In addition, application-oriented research does typically not select its problems on its own; these problems are rather imposed on science by the social forces, such as the economy or politics. This situation produces methodological differences as compared to epistemic research that I want to explore in detail in the project. The conceptual framework I use is the relationship between different kinds of values. I seek to gain clarity about the methodological character of application-oriented research regarding problem-choice and research heuristics, for one, and regarding procedures of testing and assessing hypotheses, for another. The goal is to analyze the epistemic character of scientific knowledge produced under application pressure.