Facing the Credibility Crisis of Science: On the Ambivalent Role of Pluralism in Establishing Relevance and Reliability

摘要

Science at the interface with society is regarded with mistrust among parts ofrnthe public. Scientific judgments on matters of practical concern are not infrequentlyrnsuspected of being incompetent and biased. I discuss two proposalsrnfor remedying this deficiency. The first aims at strengthening the independencernof science and suggests increasing the distance to political and economic powers.rnThe drawback is that this runs the risk of locking science in an academicrnivory tower. The second proposal favors “counter-politicization” in that researchrnis strongly focused on projects “in the public interest,” that is, on projectsrnwhose expected results will benefit all those concerned by these results. The disadvantagernis that the future use of research findings cannot be delineatedrnreliably in advance. I argue that the underlying problem is the perceived lackrnof relevance and reliability and that pluralism is an important step toward itsrnsolution. Pluralism serves to stimulate a more inclusive research agenda andrnstrengthens the well-testedness of scientific approaches. However, pluralism alsornprevents the emergence of clear-cut practical suggestions. Accordingly, pluralismrnis part of the solution to the credibility crisis of science, but also part of thernproblem. In order for science to be suitable as a guide for practice, the leeway ofrnscientific options needs to be narrowed – in spite of uncertainty in epistemicrnrespect. This reduction can be achieved by appeal to criteria that do not focusrnon the epistemic credentials of the suggestions but on their appropriateness inrnpractical respect.