Epistemic cultures

Abstract

Epistemic cultures are cultures of creating and warranting knowledge; ‘epistemic’ refers to knowledge and truth-related goals and practices as central elements of scientific and professional fields. The notion epistemic culture challenges the idea of the epistemic unity of the sciences and suggests that the sciences are in fact differentiated into cultures of knowledge, which are characteristics of scientific fields or research areas, each reflecting a diverse array of practices and preferences coexisting under the blanket notion of science. This article traces the history of the concept, its various meanings, original research that supports the idea, and recent extensions to areas of practical relevance (such as learning and policy making), to the humanities, finance, and other fields. It shows how the notion has been used to explain the difficulties of interdisciplinary research. The article also discusses the uses of the idea of ‘knowledge cultures’ on a macrolevel to compare and assess attitudes toward nonknowledge and epistemic mentalities inherent in the knowledge-related institutions and policies of particular countries.