Is it appropriate to ‘target’ inappropriate dissent? on the normative consequences of climate skepticism
Item Type
Author
Language
English
Abstract
As Justin Biddle and I have argued, climate skepticism can be epistemically problematic when it displays a systematic intolerance of producer risks at the expense of public risks (Biddle and Leuschner in European Journal for Philosophy of Science 5(3): 261–278, 2015). In this paper, I will provide currently available empirical evidence that supports our account, and I discuss the normative consequences of climate skepticism by drawing upon Philip Kitcher’s “Millian argument against the freedom of inquiry.” Finally, I argue that even though concerns regarding inappropriate disqualification of dissent are reasonable, a form of “targeting” dissent—namely revealing manufactured dissent—is required in order to identify epistemically detrimental dissent and, thus, to protect scientific and public discourse.
Publication Title
Publication Year
2018
Publication Date
2018-03-01
Journal abreviation
Synthese
Source
Springer Link
License
ISSN
1573-0964
Physical Description
vol. 195, n. 3, pp. 1255-1271
Short Title
Is it appropriate to ‘target’ inappropriate dissent?