EPISTYLE · Style Matters: Scientific Pluralism and its Early-Modern Sources

Style Matters: Scientific Pluralism and its Early-Modern Sources

EPISTYLE focuses on the concept of “style” and its aim is to lay the ground for rethinking the history and the terms of contemporary debates over scientific pluralism. The notion of "style" played an important role in the so-called “pluralist turn” in history and philosophy of science (H&PS) of the second half of the twentieth century. This turn emphasized the disunity of the sciences, in terms of both methods and results, and developed as a response to the philosophical program for the unification of science which characterised mainstream philosophy of science, especially in the first half of the twentieth century. In some cases, however, this has led to constructivist and relativist views of science and knowledge that contributed to undermine the general credibility of science in our societies. EPISTYLE is important for society because it provides a complex, both historical and conceptual framing for current debates about pluralism in science and science policy. Such debates are very vivid in our societies, particularly as a consequence of processes such as the climate crisis or events as the recent pandemic crisis. Such processes and events have pushed scientists, scholars at large, and policy makers to critically discuss and improve their standards of operation in order to respond to an increased societal demand for transparency and openness. In this framework, efforts are being made to rethink the nature and aims of both “open science” and “citizen (or "community") science” by drawing on the notion of epistemic diversity. Style can play here a central in the search for a pluralism which is tolerant but at the same time coherent, that is, capable of distinguishing the level of objectivity and credibility of specific scientific claims. EPISTYLE overall objective is to contribute to these ongoing efforts by developing a coherent form of pluralism which avoids relativist outcomes. EPISTYLE made decisive steps in this direction, developing the notion of “stylistic pluralism” which draws from the historicity and contextuality of forms of inquiry in order to better assess the forms of objectivity and progressivity that characterize the sciences.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union