Jan De Winter, “Interests and Epistemic Integrity in Science” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017)
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What is the central thesis of Jan de Winter’s book *Interests and Epistemic Integrity in Science*?
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Hello and welcome to New Books and Philosophy, a podcast channel with the New Books Network. I'm Carrie Figor, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa. I'm co host of the channel along with Robert Talise, professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University. Together we bring you conversations with philosophers about their new books, drawing from a wide range of areas of contemporary philosophical inquiry. Today's interview is with Yonder Winter, an independent scholar based in Ghent. His new book Interests and Epistemic Integrity in Science is just out from Roman and Littlefield. In the nineteen sixties, Thomas Kuhn argued in the Structure of Scientific Revolutions that scientists' choices between competing theories could not be determined by the empirical evidence.
Ever since, philosophers of science have debated the role of non epistemic values and interests in science, generally agreeing that such influences are undesirable even if they are inevitable. In his new book Ionda Winter argues that the direct influence of non epistemic interests in science is not invariably epistemically problematic. In his view, what is mistaken for an epistemic problem is often a lack of transparency regarding the interests involved in how a scientific decision has been reached. De Winter also defends a conception of epistemic integrity in the conduct of scientific research. That does not presuppose a distinction between interests that are external to science, such as financial interests, and those which are internal to it.
Let's turn to the interview. Uh hello, Jan de Winter. Uh welcome to New Books in Philosophy. Uh hello. Um thank you for agreeing to talk with uh with us about your new book, Interests and Epistemic Integrity in Science. Um before we get to the book, um Uh can we hear a little bit about yourself? I mean you are an independent scholar, um which is um, you know, atypical in the sense that most people doing research are usually affiliated with a you know in some university positions. So um can you say a bit about, you know, your background as a philosopher and Um, you know, how you're how you're doing as far as an independent scholar goes and um and how you came to write this particular book.
Um yes, so I currently work as an ethics teacher. Um so my pupils are between twelve and eighteen years old and I teach ethics. Um Now I I also got a PhD in philosophy in in the field of philosophy of science, so I worked a couple of years at Kent University, uh for the Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science. And uh the book is basically a result of that research uh that I did at the Center for Logic of Philosophy of Science. Um now after my uh grant ended, I still continue doing research and uh
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the central thesis of Jan de Winter’s book *Interests and Epistemic Integrity in Science*?
0:00–11:32
2
How does de Winter distinguish between epistemic and non‑epistemic interests in scientific research?
11:32–21:59
3
Why does de Winter argue that non‑epistemic interests are not always epistemically problematic?
21:59–32:30
4
What is the ‘partial ideal of purity’ and how does it differ from the full ideal of scientific purity?
32:30–43:51
5
How does the book treat the case of a religious biologist who rejects evolution for personal reasons?
43:51–54:06
6
What role do transparency and disclosure play in evaluating epistemic integrity?
54:06–1:03:31
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from New Books in Philosophy
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