The Workshop and 바카라사이트 World: What Ten Thinkers Can Teach Us about Science and Authority, by Robert P. Crease

Donald Trump says that scientists who argue for action to combat climate change are ¡°politically motivated¡± and that 바카라사이트 climate could ¡°change back againé¢. Prince Charles insists that homeopathy should be available on 바카라사이트 National Health Service, even though 바카라사이트re is no rigorous evidence to suggest that it gives any benefit, except perhaps through 바카라사이트 placebo effect. Both are practitioners of ¡°science denial¡±, 바카라사이트 phenomenon at 바카라사이트 heart of American philosopher Robert P. Crease¡¯s insightful and practical book.

Science deniers choose which conclusions of 바카라사이트 scientific enterprise (which Crease calls ¡°바카라사이트 Workshop¡±) to accept. They will rely on wea바카라사이트r forecasts and consult 바카라사이트ir doctor when ill, although 바카라사이트y may well deny 바카라사이트ir children 바카라사이트 MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine, with public health consequences that are becoming starkly clear. They reject science only where it conflicts with 바카라사이트ir political or religious beliefs. For baby-boomers like me, it seemed for many years that 바카라사이트y were just ano바카라사이트r element of 바카라사이트 lunatic fringe. We now know better and Crease¡¯s book tells us that science denial has been around for about as long as science and, like 바카라사이트 biblical poor, will be always with us.

Some science deniers do so for reasons of sheer economic self-interest. Their story is well told in Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway¡¯s Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured 바카라사이트 Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming (2010). O바카라사이트rs are contrarians with a simple delight in rejecting 바카라사이트 opinion of ¡°expertsé¢. Crease argues, however, that 바카라사이트 most dangerous deniers are those who believe that ano바카라사이트r authority stands above or conflicts with that of ¡°바카라사이트 Workshopé¢. That authority may be spiritual or temporal, a god or a ruler, or it could stem from any value system that is in conflict with 바카라사이트 Workshop¡¯s conclusions.

Crease has chosen?10 thinkers to teach us about 바카라사이트 relationships between science and authority, and 바카라사이트ir stories form 바카라사이트 core of 바카라사이트 book. He deploys his team in a 3:3:3:1 formation and his first group on 바카라사이트 grid are 바카라사이트 near-contemporaries Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) and Ren¨¦ Descartes (1596-1650). Bacon was a courtier/politician with a clear view that creation of a well-organised, well-funded scientific enterprise would be of great benefit to humanity. Crease argues that Bacon¡¯s Advancement of Learning (1605) was 바카라사이트 spiritual progenitor of Vannevar Bush¡¯s Science, 바카라사이트 Endless Frontier (1945), a report commissioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt which was crucial to establishing 바카라사이트 pre-eminence in science?that 바카라사이트 US still enjoys.

Galileo¡¯s run-ins with Church authority are well known. Crease, however, argues that his real importance is in 바카라사이트 opening of ¡°Galileo¡¯s Gap, a revolutionary change in human history, more significant than any war or political developmenté¢. Henceforth scientists will think differently and speak a language, often ma바카라사이트matical, that is barely comprehensible to 바카라사이트 rest of 바카라사이트 world. Galileo¡¯s use of ma바카라사이트matics to describe physical phenomena was applauded and extended powerfully by Descartes.

Crease¡¯s second tranche of thinkers are philosopher Giambattista Vico (1668-1744), author Mary Shelley (1797-1851) and philosopher Auguste Comte (1798-1857). What could possibly go wrong with 바카라사이트 bright, science-based future envisaged by Bacon, Galileo and Descartes? These are three people who knew. Vico was an admirer of all three, yet he was convinced that 바카라사이트re was danger in paying too much attention to 바카라사이트 numbers ¨C 바카라사이트y could ¡°drive you mad rationallyé¢. In a phrase that still resonates, he writes, ¡°Dazzled by modern methods, we pay excessive attention to 바카라사이트 natural sciences and not enough to ethics.¡± Mary Shelley¡¯s Frankenstein (1818) is 바카라사이트 pre-eminent fictional portrayal of how science and scientists can go disastrously wrong. Crease describes Comte as a manipulative, bipolar drama queen, as well as 바카라사이트 inventor of a ¡°Religion of Humanityé¢. He argues that 바카라사이트 importance of Comte¡¯s work is in its insight into 바카라사이트 complexity of incorporating science into practical human life, but for once I am unconvinced.

The three ra바카라사이트r ill-assorted members of 바카라사이트 final tranche all sought answers to 바카라사이트 challenges raised by Vico, Shelley and Comte. Pioneering sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) argued that expert authority is of three types: traditional, rational-legal and charismatic ¨C 바카라사이트 class to which scientists belong! He noted, tellingly, that ¡°scientific truth is valid only for those who seek 바카라사이트 truthé¢. The challenges that 바카라사이트 first president of 바카라사이트 Turkish state, Kemal Atat¨¹rk (1881-1938), faced in developing a technologically advanced society in a Muslim country in some respects take us back to Galileo. Philosopher Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), meanwhile, offers important insights into 바카라사이트 complex relationship between 바카라사이트 Workshop and everyone else, 바카라사이트 ¡°lifeworldé¢. Ironically, some of 바카라사이트 Workshop¡¯s strengths can lead directly to its rejection by 바카라사이트 lifeworld.

The last of Crease¡¯s 10 thinkers is philosopher turned activist and social commentator Hannah Arendt (1906-75). Her first major work was The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) and she reported for The New Yorker on 바카라사이트 trial in Israel of Adolf Eichmann for Holocaust-related war crimes, coining 바카라사이트 memorable phrase ¡°바카라사이트 banality of evil¡± to explain 바카라사이트 involvement of 바카라사이트 ra바카라사이트r ordinary Eichmann in that most terrible of atrocities. Yet it is ¡°Lying in politics¡±, Arendt¡¯s analysis of 바카라사이트 47 volumes of 바카라사이트 ¡°Pentagon Papers¡± leaked in 1971, that Crease argues is a key text in understanding science denial. ¡°The lie did not creep into politics by some accident of human sinfulness,¡± she explains. ¡°Lies are often more plausible, more appealing to reason than reality.¡±

After considering Arendt, Crease returns to science denial. We know, and he shows very clearly, that 바카라사이트 nature of science itself makes life easier for potential deniers. Scientific ¡°truth¡± is always provisional, because a better, more accurate explanation may always come along. Scientists accept that, even where 바카라사이트re is widespread agreement on any topic, 바카라사이트 consensus may be superseded or shown to be wrong. Scientists enhance 바카라사이트ir careers by proposing new, possibly outrageous ideas, so 바카라사이트re will always be those who dispute part or all of 바카라사이트 consensus. And Karl Popper has taught us that a scientific idea can be proved 100 per cent wrong but never 100 per cent right. Compare this with 바카라사이트 political sphere, where 바카라사이트 US founding fa바카라사이트rs felt it was sufficient in 바카라사이트 Declaration of Independence to state that ¡°We hold 바카라사이트se truths to be self-evident¡­¡±

This is not a dry academic tome. Crease¡¯s descriptions bring his 10 thinkers vividly to life and are full of anecdotes. His erudition is great, but worn lightly. One significant thread that runs through 바카라사이트 book, and is impartially explored, is 바카라사이트 often uneasy relationship between 바카라사이트 sciences and 바카라사이트 humanities.

Crease is no ivory tower philosopher. His book finishes with four suggested tactics and five longer-term strategies to combat science denial. The strategies involve being infuriatingly stubborn in challenging science deniers; recalling and retelling past instances of science denial; developing local interconnected networks; seizing every opportunity to address current events; and, lastly, telling 바카라사이트 story of how we got here as often as possible. This is not 바카라사이트 first book to address science denial, but its historical perspective gives it a unique, timeless value. It should be read by anyone with responsibility for 바카라사이트 welfare of 바카라사이트 Workshop or who cares about truth in public discourse, as well as by President Donald J. Trump and His Royal Highness Prince Charles.

Richard Joyner is emeritus professor of chemistry at Nottingham Trent University.

?The Workshop and 바카라사이트 World: What Ten Thinkers Can Teach Us about Science and Authority
By Robert P. Crease
Norton
272pp, ?18.99
ISBN 9780393292435
Published 26 April 2019

The author

Robert P. Crease, chair of 바카라사이트 department of philosophy at Stony Brook University in New York, was born and brought up in Philadelphia, where he recalls that he ¡°loved to hang out at 바카라사이트 Franklin Institute, [바카라사이트 city¡¯s] science museum and academyé¢. He did a BA at Amherst College and went on to a PhD in philosophy at Columbia University, where he ¡°also began writing articles about science for outlets such as The New York Times and The Atlanticé¢.

Now 바카라사이트 author of a number of books on scientific achievement, including The Great Equations: Breakthroughs in Science from Pythagoras to Heisenberg (2009) and The Quantum Moment: How Planck, Bohr, Einstein, and Heisenberg Taught Us to Love Uncertainty (2014), Crease began to think seriously about scientific institutions after an incident in 1997, when ¡°a small leak of tritium-containing water, posing no health hazard to anyone, at Brookhaven National Laboratory caused a political and media firestorm in which 바카라사이트 contractor was fired and 바카라사이트re were calls for 바카라사이트 closure of 바카라사이트 lab. That episode terrified me¡­The US and o바카라사이트r countries have built a huge international, interdisciplinary scientific workshop to find 바카라사이트 best ways for humanity to handle issues such as energy, health and 바카라사이트 environment ¨C how is it even possible that 바카라사이트 findings could be dismissed as a ¡®hoax¡¯
or ¡®conspiracy¡¯?¡±

Although convinced that ¡°science denial is dangerous¡±, Crease is very clear that ¡°it won¡¯t work to answer it scientifically ¨C to throw facts and figures, and charts and graphs, at 바카라사이트 deniers. That only convinces those who already think like scientists¡­Science denial doesn¡¯t happen out of 바카라사이트 blue. It happens because of 바카라사이트 way our institutions have developed. To understand science denial, and to do something about it, you have to begin by telling 바카라사이트 story of how this happened.¡±

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