|
Product Description
Why the social character of scientific knowledge makes it trustworthy
Do doctors really know what they are talking about when they tell us vaccines are safe? Should we take climate experts at their word when they warn us about the perils of global warming? Why should we trust science when our own politicians don't? In this landmark book, Naomi Oreskes offers a bold and compelling defense of science, revealing why the social character of scientific knowledge is its greatest strength―and the greatest reason we can trust it.
Tracing the history and philosophy of science from the late nineteenth century to today, Oreskes explains that, contrary to popular belief, there is no single scientific method. Rather, the trustworthiness of scientific claims derives from the social process by which they are rigorously vetted. This process is not perfect―nothing ever is when humans are involved―but she draws vital lessons from cases where scientists got it wrong. Oreskes shows how consensus is a crucial indicator of when a scientific matter has been settled, and when the knowledge produced is likely to be trustworthy.
Based on the Tanner Lectures on Human Values at Princeton University, this timely and provocative book features critical responses by climate experts Ottmar Edenhofer and Martin Kowarsch, political scientist Jon Krosnick, philosopher of science Marc Lange, and science historian Susan Lindee, as well as a foreword by political theorist Stephen Macedo.
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
- True Enough (The MIT Press)
- Discerning Experts: The Practices of Scientific Assessment for Environmental Policy
- The Art of Statistics: How to Learn from Data
- On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal
- What Science Is and How It Really Works
- All Hell Breaking Loose: The Pentagon's Perspective on Climate Change
- The Scientific Attitude: Defending Science from Denial, Fraud, and Pseudoscience (The MIT Press)
- The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future
- Social Problems (Third Edition)
- Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Climate Change
*If this is not the "Why Trust Science? (University Center for Human Values Series)" product you were looking for, you can check the other results by clicking this link. Details were last updated on Dec 18, 2024 19:30 +08.