Johannes Persson

Lund University | LU · Department of Philosophy

Philosophers of science have in recent years become increasingly interested in the notion of interdisciplinarity. One important form interdisciplinarity can take is that of a dynamic exchange of problems and solutions between disciplines-what has recently been called problem-feeding. On this model problems arising within specific disciplines are so...

Scientific assessments, such as those by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), inform policymakers and the public about the state of scientific evidence and related uncertainties. We studied how experts from different scientific disciplines who were authors of IPCC reports, interpret the uncertainty language recommended in the Guida...

The question whether a single extreme climate event, such as a hurricane or heatwave, can be attributed to human induced climate change has become a vibrant field of research and discussion in recent years. Proponents of the most common approach (probabilistic event attribution) argue for using single event attribution for advancing climate policy,...

Background High-quality healthcare decisions need to balance input from science and clinical practice. When two sources of evidence — such as scientific and practice-derived evidence — are compared, integrated, or need to stand-in for one another, they need to be comparable on similar dimensions. Since 1891, Swedish physicians have been operating u...

A rationale for an individuals-oriented landscape approach to sustainable land-use planning based on an analysis of bio-geo-physical components as well as the human components of the landscape is presented. A toolbox for analysing individuals’ decision-making and valuations in the landscape is described. The toolbox can provide evidence on the driv...

In recent years, a dispute has arisen within detection and attribution science concerning the appropriate methodology for associating individual weather events with anthropogenic climate change. In recent contributions, it has been highlighted that this conflict is seemingly misconstrued even by those participating in it and actually concerns a mix...

Clinical expertise has since 1891 a Swedish counterpart in proven experience. This study aims to increase our understanding of clinicians’ views of their professional expertise, both as a source or body of knowledge and as a skill or quality. We examine how Swedish healthcare personnel view their expertise as captured by the (legally and culturally...

Why do citizens’ decisions made because they favour the mitigation of climate change outnumber those made because they favour adaptation to its impacts? Using data collected in a survey of 338 citizens of Malmö, Sweden, we tested two hypotheses. H1: the motivation for personal decisions because they favour adaptation to the impacts of climate chang...

Our understanding of the concept of experience tends to oscillate between something that is had (and sometimes shared) and something that is made. Sancho Panza, it has been said, illustrates the first sense and Don Quixote the second (Eriksson 2020). Both are important in this context. Together they secure, on the one hand, the cumulative potential...

Beliefs, expectations and values are often assumed to drive decisions about climate change adaptation. We tested hypotheses based on this assumption using survey responses from 508 European forest professionals in 10 countries. We used the survey results to identify communication needs and the decision strategies at play, and to develop guidelines...

Tandläkare och tandhygienister graderar beprövad och personlig erfarenhet som bas för sunt beslutsfattande högre än de som jobbar inom hälso- och sjukvården. Var!ör det är så är inte enkelt att besvara, men det är rimligt att anta att tandläkarnas syn på beprövad och personlig erfarenhet påverkas av rådande kunskapsläge, den organisation inom vilke...

Inom tandvården gäller patientsäkerhetslagen, som säger att tandläkare ska ”utföra sitt arbete i överensstämmelse med vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet”. Forskningsprogrammet Vetenskap och Beprövad Erfarenhet, VBE, har undersökt hur man inom tandvården samt hälso- och sjukvården ser på beprövad erfarenhet. Resultatet visar bland annat att tandläkar...

The Swedish medico-legal concept of “science and proven experience” is both legally important and ambiguous. The conceptual uncertainty associated with it can hamper effective assessment of medical evidence in legal proceedings and encourage medical professionals to distrust legal regulation. We examine normative criteria a functioning medico-legal...

The role of values in climate-related decision-making is a prominent theme of climate communication research. The present study examines whether forest professionals are more driven by values than scientists are, and if this results in value polarization. A questionnaire was designed to elicit and assess the values assigned to expected effects of c...

FN:s klimatpanel IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) producerar i huvudsak två typer av rapporter. Dels de så-kallade utvärderingsrapporterna (Assessment Reports), stora och genomgripande sammanfattningar av det rådande kunskapsläget om klimatförändringarna och dess konsekvenser, dels specialrapporter (Special Reports) som behandlar ol...

Proven experience can be shared. Given this, we cannot assume that the character of proven experience is always manifest as a physical token in each individual sharing it. But the token might still exist somewhere. Perhaps that is a condition of the proven experience’s existence. Something similar could have been accepted as true of scientific know...

In medical research, it is not unusual that risks are ruled out without any specification the exact risk that was ruled out. This makes it difficult to balance expected health benefits and risk of harm when choosing between alternative treatment options. International guidelines for reporting medical research results are sufficiently specific when...

S2 Table. Value cluster interpretation.

S10 Fig. Relationship between where the respondents live in the municipality and reports of having experienced coastal erosion because of climate change. Only responses from those who answered "Yes, definitely" or "Yes, probably" to the question "Did you experience extreme weather or that the climate has changed in a way that you interpret as cause...

Values related to culture, identity, community cohesion and sense of place have sometimes been downplayed in the climate change discourse. However, they have been suggested to be not only important to citizens but the values most vulnerable to climate change. Here we test four empirical consequences of the suggestion: (i) at least 50% of the locati...

Value profiles for identified groups. Groups are identified based on individual respondents' preference loadings (S1 Fig) on all value clusters identified (S2 Fig). Numbers 1 to 6 refer to value clusters 1 = "Focus on the local community", 2 = "Aesthetics", 3 = "Personal economy", 4 = "The place as such", 5 = "Active and conscious lifestyle choices...

Statistically significant relationships among variables in the models of risk perception components. The components are strength of belief in local effects of climate change (Question 1 in Table 1) and the strength of belief in having experienced the effects of climate change (Question 2 in Table 1). (PDF)

Relationship between value profile of locations chosen and for how long time the respondent has lived in Höganäs municipality. The size of the respective compartment is proportional to the number of observations in the respective category. PLV = "Place valuer", MLS = "My life style", ENV = "Environmental", LCO = "The local community", BEA = "Beauty...

Relationship between where the respondents live in the municipality and reports of having experienced coastal erosion because of climate change. Only responses from those who answered "Yes, definitely" or "Yes, probably" to the question "Did you experience extreme weather or that the climate has changed in a way that you interpret as caused by long...

Loadings on value clusters estimated for valuations. Valuations by respondents (rows) across 200 runs and sorted according to the maximum value per respondent. Numbers 1 to 6 refer to value clusters 1 = "Focus on the local community", 2 = "Aesthetics", 3 = "Personal economy", 4 = "The place as such", 5 = "Active and conscious lifestyle choices", an...

Value profile by location. The size of the respective compartment is proportional to the number of observations in the respective category. PLV = "Place valuer", MLS = "My life style", ENV = "Environmental", LCO = "The local community", BEA = "Beauty", MEC = "My economy". The graph is based on raw data before imputation (χ = 12.96, n = 276, p = 0.0...

Relationship between where the respondents live in the municipality and probability of flooding because of climate change induced sea level rise. The graph is based on raw data before imputation (W = 10340, n = 324, p = 0.00067). (TIF)

Relationship between value profile of locations selected and responses to the question "Do you think that the climate is changing because of human induced climate change to the extent that it will affect your environment?" 1 refers to "Definitely not""; 2 "Probably not"; 3 "I do not know"; 4 "Yes, probably" and 5 "Yes, definitely". The size of the...

Relationship between the value profile of locations selected and responses to the question "Did you experience extreme weather or that the climate has changed in a way that you interpret as caused by long-term and global climate change?" 1 refers to "Definitely not""; 2 "Probably not"; 3 "I do not know"; 4 "Yes, probably" and 5 "Yes, definitely". T...

Relationship between for how long the respondent has lived in the municipality and reports of having experienced storm surge (a) and coastal erosion (b) because of climate change, respectively. Only responses from those respondents who answered "Yes, definitely" or "Yes, probably" to the question "Did you experience extreme weather or that the clim...

Predefined end values and classification. Classification is made in relation to the value categories 'culture', 'identity', 'community cohesion' and 'sense of place' in [3], the range observed (maximum 1–7) and median score of values assigned by n respondents (total n = 276). (PDF)

Clusters identified for optimally scaled valuations. 54 end values were selected by the respondents among 57 predefined end values (S3 Table) across 200 runs. Numbers 1 to 6 refer to value clusters 1 = "Focus on the local community", 2 = "Aesthetics", 3 = "Personal economy", 4 = "The place as such", 5 = "Active and conscious lifestyle choices", and...

Value cluster interpretation. (PDF)

The calls for evidence-based public policy making have increased dramatically in the last decades, and so has the interest in evidence-based sustainability studies. But questions remain about what "evidence" actually means in different contexts and if the concept travels well between different domains of application. Some of the most relevant quest...

Interdisciplinary research within the field of sustainability studies often faces incompatible ontological assumptions deriving from natural and social sciences. The importance of this fact is often underrated and sometimes leads to the wrong strategies. We distinguish between two broad approaches in interdisciplinarity: unificationism and pluralis...

Interdisciplinary research in the fields of forestry and sustainability studies often encounters seemingly incompatible ontological assumptions deriving from natural and social sciences. The perceived incompatibilities might emerge from the epistemological and ontological claims of the theories or models directly employed in the interdisciplinary c...

Vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet inom högre utbildning är både en mycket gammal och en relativt ny idé. Den nya idén är från 1990-talet, från tiden när begreppet tog plats i den svenska lagstiftningen. Sedan 1992 står det i Högskolelagen: ”Staten ska som huvudman anordna högskolor för utbildning som vilar på vetenskaplig eller konstnärlig grund sa...

One of the most widely used tools for assessing and communicating scientific uncertainty is Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE), a system for rating the quality of evidence and grading strength of recommendations in healthcare. More than 100 organisations around the world—WHO included—are using GRADE or have e...

The paper is concerned with the existence of objective uncertainties. What would it take for objective uncertainties to exist, and what would be the consequences for our understanding of the world we live in? We approach these questions by considering two common theories on how we are to understand the being of propensities and how it pertains to p...

A key question for evidence-based medicine (EBM) is how best to model the way in which EBM should '[integrate] individual clinical expertise and the best external evidence'. We argue that the formulations and models available in the literature today are modest variations on a common theme and face very similar problems when it comes to risk analysi...

Innehåll Förord 7 NILS-ERIC SAHLIN Forskningsbasering för god skolutveckling 9 EVA MINTEN Undervisning på vetenskaplig grund 19 LENA ADAMSON Skolutveckling på vetenskaplig grund 29 STEFAN NORRESTAM SARA ALFREDSSON VBE i högre utbildning och skola 39 ANDERS PERSSON JOHANNES PERSSON Är VBE i skolan samma sak som VBE i hälso- och sjukvård? 49 JOHANNES...

In Swedish law, the notion of ‘science and proven experience’ (in Swedish, vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet) defines the gold standard for public decision-making and practice, especially in medicine. The notion is notoriously vague but nevertheless plays an important role in the distribution of rights and duties of patients and healthcare workers....

Figure 1: 6 dimensions of proven experience. In: Persson, J. 2017. Är vetenskaplig grund och beprövad erfarenhet i skolan samma sak som vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet i hälso- och sjukvård. Lund University.

fig2: 3 structural differences between science and proven experience in the Education act 2010 (vetenskaplig grund och beprövad erfarenhet) and science and proven experience (vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet) in medicine and healthcare 1890-1994. In: Persson, J. 2017. Är vetenskaplig grind och beprövad erfarenhet i skolan samma sak som vetenskap o...

[Texten är en preprint av en artikel som utkommer i Filosofisk Tidskrift 2017] ”Varje läkare, vare sig han är i allmän tjänst eller enskilt utövar läkaryrket, åligger att i överensstämmelse med vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet meddela patient de råd och, såvitt möjligt, den behandling, som patientens tillstånd fordrar,” Begreppet vetenskap och b...

Sedan 2010 stadgar skollagen att ”Utbildningen ska vila på vetenskaplig grund och beprövad erfarenhet.”. Skollagen ger i sig ingen ledning till hur dessa begrepp ska tolkas. Uttrycket står på en egen rad i kap 1 §5, som annars handlar om demokrati, mänskliga rättigheter, förhållandet till religion, med mera. Avsaknaden av precisering av begreppet ä...

Begreppet ’vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet’ har åtminstone sedan 1829 års licentiat- eller läkared spelat en framträdande roll inom svensk hälso- och sjukvård (Kock 1939, 281): "Och som mig rättighet nu meddelas att utöfwa läkarekonsten, så will och skall jag i sjukdomars behandling endast anwända sådane medel, hwilka erfarenheten, wetenskapen o...

A key question for evidence-based medicine (EBM) is how best to model the way in which EBM should " [integrate] individual clinical expertise and the best external evidence " (Sackett et al. 1996). We argue that the formulations and models available in the literature today are modest variations on a common theme and face very similar problems. For...

Do forest owners’ levels of education or value profiles explain their responses to climate change? The cultural cognition thesis (CCT) has cast serious doubt on the familiar and often criticized "knowledge deficit" model, which says that laypeople are less concerned about climate change because they lack scientific knowledge. Advocates of CCT maint...

Diagnostic statistics of model for predicting climate change risk perception in terms of strength of belief in the local effects of climate change by forest owners in Sweden based on education level and value profile. S.b. climate change—Strength of belief in the local effects of climate change, NU–No University education; U–University education; E...

Diagnostic statistics of model for predicting climate change risk perception in terms of strength of belief in having experienced the effects of climate change by forest owners in Germany based on education level. S.b. exp. climate change—Strength of belief in having experienced climate change; NU–No University education; U–University education. Th...

Value profiles by country. Value profiles for identified groups in Sweden (a) and Germany (b) based on individual respondents' preference loadings (S2 Fig) on all value clusters identified in each country (S1 Fig), respectively. Boxes denote the interquartile range, and whiskers extend to the minimum and maximum data points while the bold horizonta...

Questionnaire. (PDF)

Questions assessing respondents' preferences for 95 services and benefits from the forest and the range and median score (0–10) assigned by respondents who reported having not studied or studied at university, based on a question reporting respondents' highest level of education per country (see Table 1). (n = 766). (DOCX)

Number of clusters among respondents in scaling, and variance accounted for by these, by country. (DOCX)

Relationship of climate change risk perception with tentative explanatory variables. Relationships of the belief in the local effects of climate change and having experienced the effects of climate change, taken as representing components of the perception of climate change risk, highest education level and value profile for Swedish (a) and German...

Diagnostic statistics of model for predicting climate change risk perception in terms of strength of belief in having experienced the effects of climate change by forest owners in Sweden based on value profile. S.b. exp. climate change—Strength of belief in having experienced climate change; FU–Forest user value profile. The value profile Forest re...

Value clusters by country. Clusters among 95 value items (numbers below each column correspond to questions in S1 Table) identified for optimally scaled valuations made by respondents in Sweden (a) and Germany (b) across 500 runs for each country, respectively. (TIF)

Loadings on value items by country. Loadings on value items estimated for valuations made by respondents (rows) in Sweden (a) and Germany (b) across 500 runs for each country, respectively. (TIF)

Number of questionnaires distributed and returned with responses to the questions on preferences (S1 Table) per country. (DOCX)

Missingness before imputation by question and country. (DOCX)

Diagnostic statistics of model for predicting climate change risk perception in terms of strength of belief in the local effects of climate change by forest owners in Germany based on education level. S.b. climate change—Strength of belief in the local effects of climate change; NU–No University education; U–University education. The value profile...

Objective: The objective of our article is to show how "quality of evidence" and "imprecision", as they are defined in GRADE articles, may lead to confusion. We focus only on the context of systematic reviews. Study design and setting: We analyse, with the aid of standard probabilistic and statistical concepts, the concepts of quality of evidenc...

Begreppet vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet är av vikt för många verksamheter i svensk offentlig sektor. Läsaren av Läkartidningen vet att begreppet är undflyende och att tolkningarna av det varierar. Det har liknats vid en trollformel och kritiserats för att öppna för godtycke och skönsmässiga bedömningar. Värst utsatt är komponenten beprövad erfa...

Recently the importance of addressing values in discussions of risk perception and adaptation to climate change has become manifest. Values-based approaches to climate change adaptation and the cultural cognition thesis both illustrate this trend. We argue that in the wake of this development it is necessary to take the dynamic relationship between...

Researchers often aim to make correct inferences both about that which is actually studied (internal validity) and about what the results generalize to (external validity). The language of internal and external validity is not used by everyone, but many of us would agree that intuitively the distinction makes a lot of sense. Two claims are commonly...

Resilience is often promoted as a boundary concept to integrate the social and natural dimensions of sustainability. However, it is a troubled dialogue from which social scientists may feel detached. To explain this, we first scrutinize the meanings, attributes, and uses of resilience in ecology and elsewhere to construct a typology of definitions....

The notion of resilience has become widely diffused in sustainability research over the past two decades. This process has not unfolded without contention and critique of the concept has often focused on its content. In this article, we discuss how concepts, including resilience, come to be defined in scientific terms. We distinguish between osten-...

This chapter discusses the concept of explanation in metaphysics. Scientific explanation is compared with (alleged) metaphysical explanation. The comparison illustrates the difficulties with applying the concept of explanation in metaphysics.

Uncertainty, insufficient information or information of poor quality, limited cognitive capacity and time, along with value conflicts and ethical considerations, are all aspects that make risk management and risk communication difficult. This paper provides a review of different risk concepts and describes how these influence risk management, commu...

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the role of value uncertainty and value instability in decision-making that concerns morally controversial issues. Value uncertainty and value instability are distinguished from moral uncertainty, and several types of value uncertainty and value instability are defined and discussed. The relations between val...

Traditionally, interdisciplinarity has been taken to require conceptual or theoretical integration. However, in the emerging field of sustainability science this kind of integration is often lacking. Indeed sometimes it is regarded as an obstacle to interdisciplinarity. Drawing on examples from sustainability science, we show that problem-feeding,...

Detta är en bok om vetenskapsfilosofi. En bok om mål, metod och moral – vetenskapsteori för sanningssökare. Boken har inte blivit till på en eftermiddag. Allt började någon gång på 1980-talet med en kurs i vetenskapsteori för hortonomer och landskapsarkitekter på Lantbruksuniversitetet i Alnarp. Denna kurs lärde oss mycket om äppelodling, jordpackn...