Science Denial and the Scientific Attitude feat. Lee McIntyre

What exactly is science? It's something that philosophers have grappled with quite a bit. Well, the good news is that you don't have to have a philosophical understanding of the foundation of science to understand science. 

Lee McIntyre is a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University and an Instructor in Ethics at Harvard Extension School.

He is the author of many many books, including “How to Talk to a Science Denier,” Post-Truth, and The Scientific Attitude.

He sits down with Greg to look at science from a philosophical angle. They discuss flat earthers, anti-vaxxers and disinformation on the internet, paradigm shifts, the politicization of everything and becoming a philosopher of science.

The problem with misinformation and science denial 

It's that it polarizes us and demonizes the other side. It creates a us versus them dynamic around empirical issues, so that we literally fall into, you know, and different teams and hate the people on the other side. And that gives scientists an impossible task to do good science communication.

Science denial isn't new

Science denial has been around for as long as science has. And I don't think anybody with a straight face can say that science denial is worse now than it was in Galileo's time. 

More on science deniers

They think of themselves as being more scientific than the scientists. More open-minded and more skeptical at the same time. That they're really the rigorous thinkers and that scientists are biased.

Recommended Resources:

• Richard Feynman - Wikipedia
• Karl Popper - Wikipedia
• Memoirs of an Unregulated Economist, Stigler
• Behind the Curve Film

Guest Profile:

• Faculty Profile at Boston University
• Lee McIntyre’s Website
• Lee McIntyre on LinkedIn
• Lee McIntyre on Twitter
• Lee McIntyre on Facebook

His Work: 

• Lee McIntyre on Google Scholar
• How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason
• The Scientific Attitude: Defending Science from Denial, Fraud, and Pseudoscience
• Post-Truth
• The Art of Good and Evil
• Philosophy of Science: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge Contemporary Introductions to Philosophy)
• The Sin Eater
• Respecting Truth: Willful Ignorance in the Internet Age
• Dark Ages: The Case for a Science of Human Behavior

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