Which autonomy for scientific research? Epistemological analysis of the conditions of the governance of science. ; Quelle autonomie pour la recherche ? Analyse épistémologique des conditions de la gouvernance des sciences

Abstract

The autonomy of the scientific field, understood as its ability to set itself its internal composition, its norms and its objects, is the result of compromises between two antagonistic forces : on the one hand, the inscription of scientific and technical development in a certain social context that provides it with the resources it needs and that tends to put it under the dependence of objectives foreign to the scientific community ; on the other hand, a defense of scientific autonomy as a political and epistemological necessity. The emergence of a need for the control of scientific progress, and the raise of the dependence of research to market economy, seems to result in the relative downturn of this call for autonomy.In that context, the current modifications in the way scientific research is governed raise epistemological questions : which degree of autonomy should we grant the scientific field, and individual researchers, in order to optimize the knowledge production ? How should we organize scientific research so that the limitations of its autonomy have positive epistemological effects ? In this thesis, we adopt a properly philosophical perspective on issues often studied by economists and specialists of science policy management, most notably that of the best ways of funding scientific disciplines, communities, or individual researchers.First, we carry out an analysis of the arguments elaborated to defend scientific autonomy and freedom of research as an epistemological requirement. We then rebuild on this basis two pro-autonomy theses that should be taken seriously into account, for the criticisms generally leveled against them are not sound. The ''liberal thesis'' claims that individual freedom promotes epistemic productivity by motivating creativity, anticonformism, and the diversification of the problems, questions and objects under study. The ''anti-utilitarian'' thesis distinguishes between fundamental and applied science and argues for the epistemological superiority of a research exclusively ...