Leiden University Student Repository

Lambert, Iris (2022)

The Role of Empathy in the Practice of Nanobiology: A discussion of the status and transmission of personal and tacic knowledge in natural science

Master thesis | Philosophy (MA) (120 EC)

Two types of personal knowledge are identified: physical/tacit knowledge and knowledge from personal experience. Both types of knowledge seem to deal with the same problems in natural science: they are not accepted as scientifically relevant, and they are not easily translated into words. However, they seem to be of great importance for the decision making and scientific success of scientists (in the field of nanobiology). In this thesis, it is argued that both tacit personal knowledge and personal knowledge from experience should be accepted as scientifically relevant, based on arguments from feminist philosophy of science, and thus incorporated into the scientific practice and communication amongst scientists. Furthermore, empathy is put forward as a possible method for transmission of personal knowledge, based on the account of Edith Stein and other contemporary work on the function and effects of empathy in the practice of natural science.

Empathy, Feminist Philosophy of Science, Epistemology, Transmission of personal knowledge, emotion in natural science

Author

Lambert, Iris

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Philosophy of Natural Sciences

Supervisors

Prof. Dr. James McAllister

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en