LTT: Haixin Dang - Transparency and Its Discontents: Rethinking Openness in Scientific Institutions

Haixin Dang (Case Western Reserve University)

The Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh invites you to join us for our Lunch Time Talk. Attend in person at 1117 Cathedral of Learning or visit our live stream on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.

Lunch Time Talk: Haixin Dang

Friday, December 4th @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EST

Title:  Transparency and Its Discontents: Rethinking Openness in Scientific Institutions

Abstract:

Transparency has become a central ideal in contemporary scientific governance. The Open Science movement, in particular, promotes the disclosure of research data, methods, code, and other materials as a means of improving scientific reliability, accountability, and public trust. Underlying these initiatives is the assumption that making scientific practices more visible will improve their epistemic performance. In this paper, I challenge a largely unexamined assumption behind this ideal: that transparency allows us to observe scientific practice without substantially changing the practice being observed. Drawing on recent work in political philosophy and social epistemology, I argue that transparency is not merely a mechanism for making information available but an institutional intervention that reshapes the production and communication of scientific knowledge. I identify three mechanisms through which this occurs: transparency changes researchers’ incentives, transforms the practices through which information is produced and documented, and redistributes epistemic labor and resources. I develop this argument through an examination of scientific data-sharing policies, where formal commitments to openness frequently fail to produce meaningful access to research data. I suggest that these difficulties reflect not only problems of compliance but also a deeper tension between demands for transparency and the practical conditions of scientific inquiry. I conclude that the epistemic value of transparency must be assessed in relation to the institutional changes it requires. Opacity should not always be interpreted as evidence of misconduct or institutional failure; sometimes it reflects the practical and epistemic conditions under which scientific knowledge is produced.

This talk will be available online:

Zoom:  https://pitt.zoom.us/j/97822992604

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg