A Social Epistemology of Research Groups

Susann Wagenknecht is an interdisciplinary researcher at the intersection of philosophy of science, social epistemology, and qualitative empirical methods. She received her PhD from Aarhus University, Denmark, in 2014. Since then, she has published on epistemic trust and dependence in Episteme and Social Epistemology; and co-edited together with Hanne Andersen and Nancy J. Nersessian the volume Empirical Philosophy of Science (Springer, 2015).

1. Introduction.- 2. Research Groups.- 3. Method.- 4. The Planetary Science Group.- 5. The molecular Biology Laboratory.- 6. Division of Labour.- 7. Epistemic Dependence.- 8. Epistemic Trust.- 9. Collaboration and collective knowledge.- 10. Concluding remarks.

“Susann Wagenknecht has written an important book that uses empirical methods for testing and refining philosophical theories about the nature and collaborative creation of scientific knowledge. …I believe this is the first book that makes a serious attempt to study these philosophical topics with an empirical methodology. The book delivers important insights and is recommended reading for both philosophers and social scientists interested in epistemic collaboration and creation of scientific knowledge.” (Raul Hakli, Metascience, July, 2018)