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Dissent about widely accepted scientific claims can promote doubt about scientific evidence, intimidate scientists, stymie research, and lead the public and policymakers to oppose needed policies. To limit these problems, The Fight against Doubt calls for facilitating greater trust between scientists and laypersons and recognizing the limits of science in policymaking.
List of contents
- Chapter 1. Dissent and its Discontents
- Chapter 2. The Important Roles of Dissent
- Chapter 3. Bad Faith Dissent
- Chapter 4. Failing to Play by the Rules
- Chapter 5. Imposing Unfair Risks
- Chapter 6. Dealing with Normatively Inappropriate Dissent
- Chapter 7. The Relevance of Trust
- Chapter 8. Scientific Practices and the Erosion of Trust
- Chapter 9. Values in Science and the Erosion of Trust
- Chapter 10. Where Disagreements can Lie: Attending to Values in Policy
- Chapter 11: Lessons Learned and New Directions
About the author
Inmaculada de Melo-Martín is professor of Medical Ethics at Weill Cornell Medicine. She holds as PhD in Philosophy and an M.S. in Biology. Her research focuses on ethical and epistemological issues related to biomedical sciences and technologies. She has published extensively on those topics in both philosophy and science journals. She is the author of Rethinking Reprogenetics (OUP, 2017).
Kristen Intemann is an Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Department of History & Philosophy at Montana State University. She specializes in philosophy of science, particularly on issues related to values in science, scientific objectivity, and diversity in scientific communities. She has published in a variety of philosophy and science journals including Philosophy of Science, The European Journal of Philosophy of Science, Synthese, EMBO Reports, and FASEB Journal.
Summary
Dissent about widely accepted scientific claims can promote doubt about scientific evidence, intimidate scientists, stymie research, and lead the public and policymakers to oppose needed policies. To limit these problems, The Fight against Doubt calls for facilitating greater trust between scientists and laypersons and recognizing the limits of science in policymaking.
Additional text
Intemann and de Melo-Martin acknowledge that commercial and political interests have damaged public trust in science, opening the door for more dissent than is justified. They make positive suggestions for handling this dissent: not by dismissing it as unscientific, but by improving the ethical conduct of science and acknowledging the role that values play in scientific inquiry. The result is a thoughtful set of practical recommendations for improving the interactions between science and society.
