David Hopf (Leibniz Universität Hannover)
The intersection of science with society at large, and, more specifically, the issue of public trust in science as a provider of information has recently become a topic of great interest to a wide variety of disciplines and institutions. In this paper, I motivate the idea that, when concerned with public epistemic trust in science, we should focus on the state of research as opposed to individual scientific claims. I present a general framework for assessing trustworthiness, apply it to science as a provider of information, and argue that trustworthiness concerning the state of research is irreducible to individual findings.
