Models and the common good

2025/03/12 by Andrea Saltelli · 1 voice
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Economic Theory and Institutions #Economic, financial, and policy analysis #Political Philosophy and Ethics

paper · doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2025.106430

openalex publication_date 2025/03/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25

Abstract

How can models do well for the common good? Narratives and counter-narratives are possible to answer the question. The latter are taken here to argue that models may misuse their epistemic authority for reasons of occasion, opportunity and interest. A solution calls for the involvement of more disciplines and actors, but these are not by themselves sufficient due to the present governance, practice and circumstances of science. Short of a radical reset, or Reformation, change will be difficult.

Citations

• Why Most Published Research Findings Are False
• The natural selection of bad science
• The Sociology of Quantification: Where Are We Now?
• EnviroFutures: Envisioning the next century of environmental sciences
• Leamer reloaded: a long-neglected suggestion is rediscovered to apply global sensitivity analysis to a quantification before publishing it

Discussions

• The final version is online open access: doi.org/10.1016/j.en... How can models do well for the common good? Narratives and counter-narratives are possible. The latter are taken here to argue that mo [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]

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