Thick Scientific Concepts and Public Problems

In this essay, we argue for a pragmatist shift in understanding citizen participation in public problem-solving inquiries, moving from an epistemological concern with knowledge to a semantic attention to meaning. We focus on “thick scientific concepts” – such as biodiversity, well-being, and health – that intertwine descriptive and evaluative dimensions, and we argue that, unlike traditional scientific concepts, these are open to co-production between experts and laypeople, with citizens acting as semantic contributors. To this end, we introduce the notion of “meaning adequacy”, which requires that scientific conceptualizations pay attention to and take into account the lay semantic insights of the public. Drawing on Peirce’s notion of familiarity, we show how laypeople’s grasp of thick concepts provides a semantic ground that challenges disciplinary oversimplifications and enriches problem-solving. In doing so, we aim to outline a pragmatist philosophy of expertise that could help to shed new light on the nature of public inquiry.