The Scientific Attitude: Defending Science from Denial, Fraud, and Pseudoscience - Couverture souple

McIntyre, Lee

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0262538938 ISBN 13 : 9780262538930

Editeur : The MIT Press, 2020

Synopsis

This “intelligent treatise articulates why the pursuit of scientific truths, even if inevitably flawed . . . matters” in our post-truth world (Publishers Weekly).

What separates science from other disciplines? An attitude that respects evidence and is willing to evolve as new evidence arises.
 
Attacks on science have become commonplace. Claims that climate change isn’t settled science, that evolution is “only a theory,” and that scientists are conspiring to keep the truth about vaccines from the public are staples of some politicians’ rhetorical repertoire. Defenders of science often point to its discoveries (penicillin! relativity!) without explaining exactly why scientific claims are superior.
 
In this book, Lee McIntyre argues that what distinguishes science from its rivals is what he calls “the scientific attitude”—caring about evidence and being willing to change theories on the basis of new evidence. The history of science is littered with theories that were scientific but turned out to be wrong; the scientific attitude reveals why even a failed theory can help us to understand what is special about science. In this book, McIntyre explores:
 
• Historical cases that illustrate both scientific success and failure
• The transformation of medicine from a practice based on hunches to a science based on evidence
• Scientific fraud and ideology-driven denialists, pseudoscientists, and “skeptics”
• How social science should embrace the scientific attitude
 
Ultimately, McIntyre says, the grounding of science in evidence offers a uniquely powerful tool in the defense of science itself.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Lee McIntyre is a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University. He is the author of Dark Ages: The Case for a Science of Human Behavior and Post-Truth, both published by the MIT Press.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: The MIT Press
• Date d'édition: 2020
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0262538938
• ISBN 13: 9780262538930
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 296
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
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