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How Should We Promote Transient Diversity in Science?

Wu, Jingyi and O'Connor, Cailin (2023) How Should We Promote Transient Diversity in Science? [Preprint]

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Abstract

Diversity of practice is widely recognized as crucial to scientific progress. If all scientists perform the same tests in their research, they might miss important insights that other tests would yield. If all scientists adhere to the same theories, they might fail to explore other options which, in turn, might be superior. But the mechanisms that lead to this sort of diversity can also generate epistemic harms when scientific communities fail to reach swift consensus on successful theories. In this paper, we draw on extant literature using network models to investigate diversity in science. We evaluate different mechanisms from the modeling literature that can promote transient diversity of practice, keeping in mind ethical and practical constraints posed by real epistemic communities. We ask: what are the best ways to promote the right amount of diversity of practice in such communities?


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Wu, Jingyijingyi.wu@uci.edu
O'Connor, Cailincailino@uci.edu
Keywords: diversity, epistemic communities, scientific practice, network, models
Subjects: General Issues > Computer Simulation
General Issues > Decision Theory
General Issues > Ethical Issues
General Issues > Feminist Approaches
General Issues > Models and Idealization
General Issues > Science and Society
General Issues > Science and Policy
General Issues > Social Epistemology of Science
Depositing User: Dr. Cailin O'Connor
Date Deposited: 12 Aug 2021 03:12
Last Modified: 03 Jan 2023 22:46
Item ID: 19428
DOI or Unique Handle: Synthese
Subjects: General Issues > Computer Simulation
General Issues > Decision Theory
General Issues > Ethical Issues
General Issues > Feminist Approaches
General Issues > Models and Idealization
General Issues > Science and Society
General Issues > Science and Policy
General Issues > Social Epistemology of Science
Date: 2023
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/19428

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