Science as collective knowledge

被引:36
|
作者
Rolin, Kristina [1 ]
机构
[1] Helsinki Sch Econ, Helsinki 00101, Finland
来源
COGNITIVE SYSTEMS RESEARCH | 2008年 / 9卷 / 1-2期
基金
芬兰科学院;
关键词
social epistemology; collective cognitive states; contextualism;
D O I
10.1016/j.cogsys.2007.07.007
中图分类号
TP18 [人工智能理论];
学科分类号
081104 ; 0812 ; 0835 ; 1405 ;
摘要
The aim of this paper is to explore to what extent scientific knowledge is properly understood as collective knowledge. By collective knowledge is meant justified true belief or acceptance held or arrived at by groups as plural subjects. I discuss Gilbert's [ Gilbert, M. (2000) Collective belief and scientific change. In Gilbert, M. (Eds.), Sociality and responsibility: New essays on plural subject theory (pp. 37-49). Lanham: Rowman and Little field Publishers] view that scientific communities have collective knowledge and Wray's [ Wray, K. B. (2007) Who has scientific knowledge? Social Epistemology 21 (3) (pp. 335-345)] view that scientific communities are not capable of having collective knowledge but merely research teams. I argue contra Wray that collective knowledge is not limited to research teams. As Gilbert assumes, scientific communities are capable of having collective knowledge. However, I argue that Gilbert's account of collective knowledge in science is limited because it does not explain why scientific communities have an interest in collective knowledge. I introduce a contextualist theory of epistemic justification to argue that scientific communities have an interest in collective knowledge because it enables them to establish a context of epistemic justification. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
引用
收藏
页码:115 / 124
页数:10
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