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Who ought to look towards the horizon? A qualitative study on the collective social responsibility of scientific research

Politi, Vincenzo (2024) Who ought to look towards the horizon? A qualitative study on the collective social responsibility of scientific research. [Preprint]

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Abstract

There is a growing concern for the proper role of science within democratic societies, which has led to the development of new science policies for the implementation of social responsibility in research. Although the very expression ‘social responsibility of science’ may be interpreted in different ways, many of these emerging policy frameworks define it, at least in part, as a form of anticipative reflection about the potential impacts of research in society. What remains a rather under-discussed issue is the definition of the bearer of the social responsibility of science. In other words, it is not clear who is supposed to engage in such an anticipative reflection, whether individual researchers or research groups. In the past few years, philosophers of science have begun to use qualitative research methods to fill the gaps between normative models of the organisation of ideal scientific communities and the reality of actual scientific practices. In this article, I follow this approach to discuss the issue of the collective dimension of the social responsibility of science. I rely on a qualitative study conducted on an interdisciplinary research group and I describe how group dynamics position individuals and distribute duties and roles, including social responsibility. Qualitative descriptions of the distribution of duties within actual research groups should inform the formulation of general prescriptive theories on the collective responsibility of science.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Politi, Vincenzovin.politi@gmail.com0000-0002-5753-3196
Keywords: Social responsibility of science; Collective responsibility; Qualitative methods in philosophy of science; Scientific practice; Social Epistemology of Responsible Science
Subjects: General Issues > Science and Society
General Issues > Science and Policy
General Issues > Social Epistemology of Science
General Issues > Values In Science
Depositing User: Vincenzo Politi
Date Deposited: 21 Apr 2024 00:12
Last Modified: 21 Apr 2024 00:12
Item ID: 23303
Subjects: General Issues > Science and Society
General Issues > Science and Policy
General Issues > Social Epistemology of Science
General Issues > Values In Science
Date: 2024
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/23303

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