‘Moral and aesthetic bases for trust in models’ (original) (raw)

Abstract

Co-author and co-presenter: Sophia Efstathiou. "Modelling and simulation for the purposes of scientific research often occurs in contexts which are highly interdisciplinary and often distributed across industrial and academic sectors and different geographical locations. Modelling techniques are also often predicated upon the use of sophisticated and highly specialised technologies with which researchers may be variously familiar. This increases the opacity of the research domain for any one researcher relative to the practices of her colleagues, and undermines her full understanding of her research output. These social and technological factors need to be taken into consideration in broaching epistemological questions relating to the warrant and epistemic value of models and simulations in practical contexts of science. The aim of this presentation is to argue for a socio-technological epistemology of modelling and simulation work where trust (Gr. pistis) plays a pivotal role. Acknowledging the importance of trust brings an ineliminable moral component into the epistemology of modelling and simulation as practiced in large-scale science (Hardwig 1991). Two types of trust are discussed: 1. trust based on reasons or evidence, what we may call epistemic or inferential trust (following Hume 1777), and 2. a mode of trust in advance of reasons, what we call basic, implicit or nonepistemic trust (following Reid 1764). This distinction tracks two alternative conceptions of the Greek pistis as 1. belief, and 2. faith. Part of our aim is to explore these dual aspects of pistis, and its intrinsic part in epistemic practices that purport to stand (istamai) on top (epi) of the world. To that effect we use two studies of two modelling groups working in the life sciences in the U.K. and in Norway, respectively. Through a focus on epistemic work involved in the dry-lab modelling of wet-lab processes, and on how this knowledge is thereby managed by communities of researchers we highlight the multiple sites within large-scale research where trust is a vital infusion. Our first case study is an example of modelling biological processes: computational physiology requires a high degree of interdisciplinarity, relying on collaborations between experimentalists and computational modellers; biologists, mathematicians and engineers with distinctive epistemic cultures. Through a detailed case study of the collaboration among these groups we show how the acceptance of models in practical settings is mediated by moral and aesthetic aspects of the models which create a common mode of perception through which what counts as evidence for and against the model is partially constituted (Carusi 2008). Our second example concerns modelling knowledge of biological processes: systems biology is increasingly focused on managing large sets of data published across various life science fields using multiple terminologies, different parts of different organism systems and diverse methodologies to study hoped to be basic, shared processes and entities. Studying the development of an interface for data entry and retrieval shows how prima facie collective epistemic trust based on the choice of accepted ontologies and reporting styles is underwritten by (the expectation of) basic trust between research groups and experts. Conventional or seemingly arbitrary choices are supported by moral expectations and aesthetic ‘buying in’. Both when scientists are modelling processes, and when they are modelling their knowledge of processes basic trust with its concomitant moral and aesthetic values plays an important role. "

Annamaria Carusi hasn't uploaded this talk.

Let Annamaria know you want this talk to be uploaded.

Ask for this talk to be uploaded.