[MetaSTEM] Next week: Dan Hicks on the rival aims of science

[Daniela Contreras]

Hello,

Apologies for not mentioning this sooner. Christiane will not be in attendance for today's MetaSTEM meeting, due to an existing conflict. She sends her regards and hopes to see you all soon in future meetings!

Take care & Happy Thursday!

Best regards,
[cid:14eb7a90-6d30-46e1-8376-8df3f6592507]
DANIELA CONTRERAS
she/her/hers

INTERIM EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT
OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE VICE CHANCELLOR & PROVOST

5200 Lake Road | Merced, California 95343
provostevc.ucmerced.edu

________________________________
From: MetaSTEM <metastem-bounces at lists.ucmerced.edu> on behalf of Tyler Marghetis <tyler.marghetis at gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2025 9:30 PM
To: metastem at lists.ucmerced.edu <metastem at lists.ucmerced.edu>
Subject: Re: [MetaSTEM] Next week: Dan Hicks on the rival aims of science

Hi folks,

See you tomorrow! We’ll share lunch while hearing from Dan about the epistemic aims of science.

Till soon,
Tyler

On Fri, Oct 17, 2025 at 12:47 PM Tyler Marghetis <tyler.marghetis at gmail.com<mailto:tyler.marghetis at gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi MetaSTEMmers,

Join us next week for the second talk of the year in our MetaSTEM research seminar series. Info below. Thanks to Dan for speaking, and to Christian for catering the lunchboxes.

See you there!

Best,
Tyler

When: Thursday, October 23, 12:30-1:30pm
Where: SSM 230
Who: Dan Hicks, presenting work with Emilio Lobato, Cosmo Campbell, Joseph Dad
What: "Rival aims of science in an environmental controversy"
Abstract:
Environmental controversies are often framed in terms of "science vs. anti-science," with leftists and progressives typically claiming the side of science. However, their opponents often appeal to science as well. Hicks (2022) proposed that two rival views of the aims of science might be at play in these kinds of controversies.  On the "narrow view" science has purely epistemic aims; while the "broad view" takes science to also have pragmatic or practical aims.

We argue that these rival views can be seen in the controversy over the proposed US EPA open data rule "Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science." The original justification for the rule appealed to the narrative of a science-wide replication crisis and the open science movement. In public comments, supporters of the rule likewise appealed to the narrow view of science, criticizing the titular "regulatory science" in epistemic rather than practical terms. While opponents of the rule appealed to the broad view, connecting science to the practical aim of protecting human health.

We analyze approximately 21,000 public comments on the proposed rule, combining manual coding with machine learning to classify every comment as supporting or opposing, and using natural language processing (NLP) and text mining methods to compare how supporters and opponents talk about science in their comments.

Reference: Hicks, Daniel J. 2022. “When Virtues Are Vices: ‘Anti-Science’ Epistemic Values in Environmental Politics.” *Philosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology* 14 (0). https://doi.org/10.3998/.2629.

--
Tyler Marghetis, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Cognitive & Information Sciences
University of California, Merced
www.tylermarghetis.com<http://www.tylermarghetis.com/>
tyler.marghetis at gmail.com<mailto:tyler.marghetis at gmail.com> | +1.619.252.7798<tel:+1.619.252.7798>
I use the pronouns: he, him, his
I have moderate face-blindness<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia>; if you see me out of context, I may not recognize you
--

Sent from a tiny device...

--
Tyler Marghetis, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Cognitive & Information Sciences
University of California, Merced
www.tylermarghetis.com<http://www.tylermarghetis.com>
tyler.marghetis at gmail.com<mailto:tyler.marghetis at gmail.com> | +1.619.252.7798
I use the pronouns: he, him, his
I have moderate face-blindness; if you see me out of context, I may not recognize you
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