Douglas, Heather (2012) Weighing complex evidence in a democratic society. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Weighing complex sets of evidence (i.e., from multiple disciplines and often divergent in implications) is increasingly central to properly informed decision-making. Determining “where the weight of evidence lies” is essential both for making maximal use of available evidence and figuring out what to make of such evidence. Weighing evidence in this sense requires an approach that can handle a wide range of evidential sources (completeness), that can combine the evidence with rigor, and can do so in a way other experts can assess and critique (transparency). But the democratic context in need of weight of evidence analysis also places additional constraints on the process, including communicability of the process to the general public, the need for an approach that can be used across a broad range of contexts (scope), and timeliness of process (practicality). I will compare qualitative and quantitative approaches with respect to both traditional epistemic criteria and criteria that arise from the democratic context, and that a qualitative explanatory approach can best meet the criteria and elucidate how to utilize the other approaches. This should not be surprising, as the approach I argue for is the one that most closely tracks general scientific reasoning.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Douglas, Heather dougl239@msu.edu 0000-0003-1068-8948
Subjects:	General Issues > Science and Society General Issues > Science and Policy General Issues > Values In Science
Depositing User:	Prof. Heather Douglas
Date Deposited:	16 Jan 2026 13:33
Last Modified:	16 Jan 2026 13:33
Item ID:	27910
Subjects:	General Issues > Science and Society General Issues > Science and Policy General Issues > Values In Science
Date:	2012
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/27910

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