73: Lee McIntyre: Defending Science from Denial and Fraud
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
English - June 19, 2019 18:32 - 1 hour - 105 MB - ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsScience Technology astronomy biology chemistry ecology education environment geology medicine physics science Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
According to Lee McIntyre, 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. McIntyre joined us to present The Scientific Attitude, a treatise in defense of science’s processes, claims, and discoveries. McIntyre argued that what makes science distinctive is its emphasis on evidence and scientists’ willingness to change theories on the basis of new evidence.
He explored the implications of scientific fraud; tracked the transformation of medicine from its basis in hunches to its modern form as an evidence-based practice; and studied the positions of ideology-driven denialists, pseudoscientists, and “skeptics” who reject scientific findings. Join McIntyre for a look at how the scientific attitude—the grounding of science in evidence—offers a uniquely powerful tool in the defense of science.
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.
Recorded live at The Forum at Town Hall Seattle on June 3, 2019.