We present a novel kind of “socio-functional” foundationalism rooted in the division of scientific labor. Our foundationalism is social in that it involves a socio-epistemic phenomenon we dub epistemic outsourcing, whereby claims from one group of scientists provide epistemological foundations for another group of scientists. We argue that: (1) epistemic outsourcing results in a legitimate form of epistemic foundationalism, (2) this sort of foundationalism can be used to shed light on the epistemology of measurement; and (3) epistemic outsourcing is a distinctively collective epistemic phenomenon.

中文翻译：

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科学中的社会功能基础：测量案例

我们提出了一种植根于科学劳动分工的新型“社会功能”基础主义。我们的基础主义是社会性的，因为它涉及一种我们称为认知外包的社会认知现象，一组科学家的主张为另一组科学家提供认识论基础。我们认为：（1）认知外包导致认知基础主义的合法形式，（2）这种基础主义可以用来阐明测量的认识论；(3) 认知外包是一种独特的集体认知现象。