Evidence for use – Evidence for us. About the legitimizing function of evidence for science

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Elif Özmen
• Subject Area: Practical Philosophy
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 455683053

Evidence is a central concept of science, which distinguishes itself from other forms of knowledge by its systematic structure and methodological (self-)assessment. Science also generates social expectations of credibility and trust outside of the scientific community. Hence, evidence attributions have an important, legitimizing function to ground the authority and recognition of science as science, both internally and externally. This function has hardly ever been examined explicitly. Thus, the overall goal of the project is to investigate the legitimizing function of evidence with regard to what we call the appealing and determining character of evidence. On the one hand, evidence is one of the primary constituents of scientific research, argumentation, and insight. On the other hand, the question of its validity remains open: Evidence attributions can merely assert their binding character instead of proving it.First, we will therefore treat evidence as an epistemic value manifested in the scientific ethos. We are interested in the normative function that evidence serves within the self-understanding and self-confidence of science and its key actors. Second, the project examines evidence as a socio-political and ethical category. This includes the internal and external forms and functions that the appraisal of evidence takes. They play a role not only in the context of the genesis of evidence, but also within the context of the justification and recognition of scientific content as well as scientific results. Thus, the focus of our investigation is on the processes of negotiation and stabilization by which evidence is "produced", interpreted, and recognized not only as "evidence for" a scientific body of rules, but also within a framework of social norms. Attributions of scientific evidence and claims of scientific objectivity are conceived of as social phenomena that can be grasped and investigated with the methods and concepts of practical philosophy. The project will explore both the tension and the interaction between evidence for use and evidence for us in a systematic presentation of the semantics of evidence and its links to the scientific ethos, as well as in a historical case study. Thereby, the project takes up a dual desideratum of research by combining the analysis of practical philosophy of science with the hitherto neglected investigation of the philosophy of chemistry.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants