SOCRATES is a DFG-funded Center for Advanced Studies (Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe) and is headed by Prof. Dr. Mathias Frisch (as speaker) and Prof. Dr. Torsten Wilholt. It is based at the Institute for Philosophy at Leibniz University Hannover.
"Science needs trust!"
The starting point of our research approach is the observation that, when it comes to controversial topics, trust in science is often falling and a common, socially shared knowledge base is in danger of collapsing. Understanding how science can continue to serve as a source of shared knowledge that not only enjoys but also deserves trust is the challenge that the SOCRATES Centre for Advanced Studies aims to tackle. It will examine the philosophical premises relevant to trust in science. As a forum for the exchange between researchers from philosophy, sociology, communication and media studies, and other fields, SOCRATES wants to work towards a comprehensive and coherent philosophical treatment of scientific credibility and trust in science.
"Science needs trust!" says Lower Saxony's Minister of Science, Falko Mohrs: "Otherwise, it cannot fulfill its social role as a source of reliable knowledge about the world. I am therefore very pleased that the LUH has succeeded in recruiting a DFG research group on the credibility of science. I warmly congratulate the research team led by Professor Mathias Frisch and wish them exciting discoveries."
Research foci of SOCRATES
As a forum for the exchange between researchers from philosophy, sociology, communication and media studies, and other fields, SOCRATES wants to work towards a comprehensive and coherent philosophical treatment of scientific credibility and trust in science. Its focus is on the following four broader philosophical themes:
(i) Trust, trustworthiness, and social values;
(ii) Consensus, controversy, and uncertainty-management;
(iii) Trustworthiness, the spread of information, and the mediatization of science;
(iv) Trustworthiness and the globalization of science.
Scientific fields within which these themes will be explored include climate science and the climate crisis, scientific expertise in the health sciences, and credibility within and of the behavioral sciences.
SOCRATES is a Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe (Center for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences) funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG) – Project 470816212/KFG43.
Kolleg-Forschungsgruppen are a funding format that the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) developed 15 years ago specifically for the humanities and social sciences. A special feature of these Centers is that the funding includes a fellowship program that allows particularly distinguished scientists to be invited for research stays lasting several months. SOCRATES is the first Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe at Leibniz University Hannover and only the second at a university in the federal state of Lower Saxony.
