Social Epistemology should be informed by scientific practice. Therefore, a preferable springboard for epistemology is a descriptive approach. Social Epistemology has to account for scientists' experiences with experimentation, modelling and theorizing. For this reason, more empirical case studies are needed to further develop Social Epistemology.

My PhD-project (working title: Scientific Practice as Collaborative Endeavor) deals with the collaboration among scientists on group level. I study issues such as joint commitment, epistemic trust, the interaction of formal and ad-hoc group structures, as well as the interplay of group and community with regard to scientific knowledge production. In order to account for practitioners' experiences, I conduct an empirical case study, which is based on observational methods (such as 'shadowing') and interviewing.

An empirical approach to epistemology faces, of course, the particular challenge to bridge between the highly specific idiom of epistemologists and practitioners' language. Meeting this challenge is key to a fruitful Empirical Social Epistemology.