The Contested Sciences: Between Idealization and Contempt

Analysing the controversy about contemporary attacks on the sciences, Frieder Vogelmann shows that the defenders of scientific practices all too often erect an ideal that immunises them against criticism, obscures their diversity and ignores firmly established knowledge about them from philosophy and sociology of science. This exaggerated defence is grist for the mill of science deniers, because no actual scientific practice could ever correspond to it.

Instead, Vogelmann proposes a realistic understanding of scientific practices that brings into view their political contestations, historical developments and social embeddedness. Vogelmann demonstrates how such a realistic picture of scientific practices defends their epistemic authority with a political epistemology, centred on a conceptualisation of truth as a comparatively weak force emerging in social practices. The resulting materialist, non-sovereign epistemology of the sciences recognizes their value as well as their plurality, historicity and contextuality.

Praise

“What is the relationship between science and politics? What should it be? From climate change to vaccines, public debate about these questions is marred by an erroneous, because all too simplistic, understanding of science. With clarity and precision, Frieder Vogelmann diagnoses the current stalemate between contempt for and idealization of the sciences and offers an alternative view of scientific practices in all their plurality and complexity. Vogelmann is a master of his craft, and this highly readable book offers a way out of our current predicament.”

Verena Erlenbusch-Anderson, University of Illinois, USA

“Vogelmann correctly states that a defense of the sciences must be based on a realistic portrayal of their social context and the effects this has on scientific work. No more ‘just follow the science’! This book uses the new tools developed in political epistemology to strengthen our understanding of how scientific justification can be judged, and improved.”

Linda Martín Alcoff, City University of New York, USA

“Science today labors under a massive public relations problem, and philosophy of science thus far has offered little to help. This book is an exception. Frieder Vogelmann here provides an insightful analysis of the situation and marshals an impressively diverse array of resources toward a solution. A must-read for the rest of us!”

Janet Kourany, University of Notre Dame, USA