Prof. Dr. Jeroen de Ridder

​Department of Philosophy, Vrjie Universiteit Amsterdam

Traditional defences of the epistemic trustworthiness and reliability of science involve an account of various gatekeeping mechanisms. Several such mechanisms are supposed to operate in concert. They include the motivations of scientific researchers to pursue the truth disinterestedly, the rigorous use of scientific methods, and peer review. In this talk, I will review recent direct and indirect evidence from meta-science and studies on research integrity suggesting that, in various parts of science, none of these gatekeeping mechanisms are functioning as they should – and that attempts to do something about this have not (yet) had major impact. I will also consider how recent developments in generative AI are likely to make the situation even worse. The upshot of all this is that we need a more realistic and moderate account of how we can trust science that can support a qualified account of the trustworthiness of science.