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Is it appropriate to "target" inappropriate dissent?

on the normative consequences of climate skepticism

Anna Leuschner

pp. 1255-1271

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 details

Published in:

Ulatowski Joseph, Wright Cory (2018) Minimalism about truth. Synthese 195 (3).

Pages: 1255-1271

DOI: 10.1007/s11229-016-1267-x

Full citation:

Leuschner Anna (2018) „Is it appropriate to "target" inappropriate dissent?: on the normative consequences of climate skepticism“. Synthese 195 (3), 1255–1271.