Professor inaugural lectures by David Budtz Pedersen and Frederik Stjernfelt

Accelerating the Impact of Science Through Science Advice 

David Budtz Pedersen

The current epistemological crisis of Western democracies represent one of the most serious challenges that 21st century governments, policymakers and universities need to face. Together with scientists and policymakers, the trend towards post-truth, post-fact, or post-trust societies should prompt the humanities to reflect less upon abstract definitions of trust, let alone attitudes of trust and much more upon creating trustworthy institutions that are able to communicate evidence and analysis. In this lecture, I outline the present and future work of the Humanomics group on developing better practices for translating research into policymaking. The talk is divided in three sections. The first outlines the epistemic crisis. The second outlines  current models of science advice. And the third outlines a research agenda for future science of science advice. 
 

Freedom of the press - yesterday, today, and tomorrow

Frederik Stjernfelt

Freedom of expression has played a central role in Danish and international debate since the Cartoon Crisis of 2006. This calls for investigation, both of the historical origin of free speech and its future in the internet and social media. Here, I shall focus upon two points: 1) Danish free speech as it was articulated with the abolishment of censorship in 1770 and the "free speech writings" which became the immediate result - a torrent of pamphlets ranging from serious debate, political criticism, over satire and gossip to slander and libel  - prompting important investigations of press freedom. 2) The actual tensions and discussions over fake news and systematic misinformation on the internet and how it may be fought: by censorship against unwanted content, by editorial responsibility, by systematically revealing misinformation, by heightened awareness among users.