PEDRO BRAVO DE SOUZA

Scientists from different backgrounds have been relying upon the precautionary principle, which aims to protect the environment or human health from uncertain damages, to advance a reorganization of scientific activities called precautionary science. Through decisions motivated by values close to the precautionary principle, scientific research itself could facilitate precautionary measures. Despite its practical and theoretical relevance, some gaps remain in the precautionary science literature regarding its definition, its relationship with the precautionary principle and its practical obstacles. In this Thesis, we sought to propose a definition of precautionary science that could contribute to such literature and its gaps. Due to the proximity of precautionary science to discussions in values in science, this field and one of its proposals, the model of interactions between scientific activities and values, were taken as the main theoretical references for the attainment of the aforementioned objective. In dialogue with them, the main results achieved were: first, a unified classification of the different interpretations of the precautionary principle; second, a new definition of the epistemic interpretation of the principle based on the notion of inductive risk; third, a definition of precautionary science thanks to the concepts of context-sensitive strategy, epistemic precaution, and the value perspective of environmental justice and intergenerational impartiality; and, fourth, how financial conflicts of interest in science constitute a serious obstacle to precautionary science through a case study of pollution by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.