Truth, Trust, and Demo­cracy | Anjan Chakravartty (University of Miami)

In democratic societies, public opinion is often consequential in shaping public policy. In the case of public opinion about science, denialism linked to forms of ideological opposition has led to growing concern about how best to shape public understanding so as to counter denialist propaganda. Complicating this aspiration, however, is the fact that even those who are committed to careful evaluations of our best science – philosophers, historians, and other scholars of the sciences, including scientists themselves – often disagree about how to characterize the precise epistemic status of science. Taking all of this seriously, this lecture considers the question of what attitudes toward science we should aim to inculcate in students, in order to shape public understanding in ways that will both promote the use of our best science for the good of society, and pay due respect to epistemic autonomy, in recognition of the limits of persuasion in an open society.