Trust in Science

This open access book proposes that Europe has something to offer in the current landscape, namely decades of experience when it comes to addressing societal, ethical, and regulatory challenges of technoscientific change. Science is experiencing unprecedented turbulence as US government officials and Big Tech CEOs actively undermine its authority, particularly when scientific findings conflict with economic interests and power dynamics in polarized policy debates. At this time when Europe is closely monitoring what is happening "across the Pond" and struggles to position itself between giant technoscientific superpowers, researchers from three European projects joined forces to examine Science and Society's role and their interrelationship in addressing global challenges. In this Springer Brief, the authors ask core questions about Trust in Science: Are we indeed facing a trust crisis, as some sources suggest? Should science be trusted, or rather: should trust in science be promoted, and if so on what grounds? If fostering trust in science is a worthwhile and valid objective, how can it be achieved?
The authors contend that through participatory research methodologies, "European sciences" have the opportunity to strengthen their responsiveness to societal values, priorities, and concerns."
Hub Zwart (1960) studied philosophy and psychology at Radboud University Nijmegen (The Netherlands) and defended his thesis in 1993. In 2000, he became full professor of Philosophy at the Faculty of Science RU Nijmegen. In 2018, he was appointed as the dean of Erasmus School of Philosophy (Erasmus University Rotterdam). He is an editor-in-chief of the Library for Ethics and Applied Philosophy (Springer). His research develops a philosophical (dialectical) perspective on contemporary technoscience. Special attention is devoted to the dialectical relationship between science and genres of the imagination (drama, poetry, cinema, novels, music). In 2017, he published Tales of Research Misconduct (Springer Nature, open access) and in 2022 Continental Philosophy of Technoscience (Springer Nature, open access).