BIAP seeks to become an international leader in philosophy, by implementing a cutting-edge collaborative strategic research programme (01 January 2023 – 31 December 2026) on the nature and role of evidence that exploits the synergies and complementarities among its individual members and the consolidated research groups to which they belong.

This programme will attract and research-train outstanding talent in different areas of philosophy, will raise the unit’s level of international cooperation, and aims to have social impact by addressing wide-spread scepticism about the force of evidence in decision-making within the public sphere.

Main objectives

The main objectives of the strategic research programme are to explore and systematize the sources of, and different roles assigned to evidence in a variety of well-defined contexts of enquiry;  to develop a coherent overall conception of the nature of evidence, and of evidential support, across the aforementioned contexts of enquiry, synthesizing the results obtained with the results of the first principal research objective, and to determine the lessons to be drawn from this research for the uses and roles that evidence should have in the public sphere.

Work packages (WPs)

BIAPs research strategic programme is divided into 7 work packages (WPs): 6 connected with existing areas of philosophical work in BIAP, and a 7th devoted to public outreach, dissemination and knowledge transfer.

[WP1] Evidence in epistemology

Sven Rosenkranz (ICREA – UB)

This WP is dedicated to epistemological theories of evidence and evidential support and undertakes to clarify the relations these notions bear to those of truth, knowledge, logical inference, and justification, and their suitability for the articulation of norms of rational belief.

[WP2] Evidence and the law

Jordi Ferrer (UdG)

This WP focuses on the role of evidence in legal contexts, such as courts of law, and is devoted to the explication, and critical evaluation, of standards of proof operative in those contexts.

[WP3] Evidence in science

José Antonio Díez (UB) & Carl Hoefer (ICREA – UB)

This WP is dedicated to the role of evidence for scientific prediction and explanation and focuses, more specifically, on an assessment of the scope and force of evidence in both the biomedical and the social sciences, with evidence in physics serving as a foil for comparison.

[WP4] Evidence in philosophy of mind

Josefa Toribio (ICREA – UB)

This WP addresses the role of empirical evidence, as gathered by psychology and cognitive science, for philosophical conceptions of the mind. It targets issues concerning the nature of representation and the nature of perception, with a focus on socially relevant perceptual and cognitive phenomena.

[WP5] Evidence and philosophical method

Manuel García-Carpintero (UB)

This WP addresses the question of what might serve as the evidential basis for theses in areas of philosophy such as metaphysics, epistemology, the philosophy of language or mind; in this context, it critically evaluates the role of intuitions for philosophical reasoning.

[WP6] Evidence, politics, and the public sphere

Josep Joan Moreso (UPF) & Serena Olsaretti (ICREA – UPF)

This WP investigates the prospects and potential limitations of evidence-based policy-making and its bearing on the lives of, and successful communication to, the general public.

[WP7] Outreach and transfer of knowledge

Teresa Marques (UB)

This WP is designed for the conception and organization of tailor-made outreach and transfer of knowledge activities drawing on the various interlocking research results obtained in the context of the first 6 work packages and amplifying the relevance they have for society.