Politicizing Science

Politicizing Science PDF Author: Michael Gough
Publisher: Hoover Institution Press
ISBN: 0817939334
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this book leading scientists share their experiences and observations of developing and testing hypotheses, offering insights on the dangers of manipulating science for political gain. It describes how politicization--whether by misapplication, overextension, or outright manipulation of the scientific record to advance particular policy agendas--imposes expenditures of money, missed opportunities, and burdens on the economy.

Politicizing Science

Politicizing Science PDF Author: Michael Gough
Publisher: Hoover Institution Press
ISBN: 0817939334
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this book leading scientists share their experiences and observations of developing and testing hypotheses, offering insights on the dangers of manipulating science for political gain. It describes how politicization--whether by misapplication, overextension, or outright manipulation of the scientific record to advance particular policy agendas--imposes expenditures of money, missed opportunities, and burdens on the economy.

Science and the Media

Science and the Media PDF Author: Peter J. Snyder
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0080920292
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 270

Get Book Here

Book Description
Of great utility for every scientist faced with publicizing their discoveries via the media, this book addresses questions of responsibility for the balance and accuracy of scientific reporting, and attempts to be a guide for the scientist in their quest to inform the general public about their research in honest, truthful, and still interesting ways. Case studies by leading scholars in the fields of bioethics (pharmaceutical research (Declan Doogan, Senior VP Pfizer), medical journal editing (Jerome Kassirer, former editor of NEJM), science journalism, philosophy of science, history of medicine (John Warner, chair history of medicine Yale), public health (Ruth Katz, Dean public health, George Washington University), and philosophy of religion (Reverend Wesley Carr, former Dean of Westminster) illustrate positions and points of view and offer unique perspectives on the complex dance between science and the media. - Provides a compelling overview and analysis of the difficulties of dealing with mass media and collects tips and solutions. - Includes case studies from the experience of a number of high-profile contributors from different fields - Provides an easy-to-read, carefully selected and synthesized overview well suited to teaching and as further reading source in respective classes - Includes a famous movie from Jose Delgado that shows his attempts in the 60s to demonstrate "remote control" of a bull

The Republican War on Science

The Republican War on Science PDF Author: Chris Mooney
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465003869
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 364

Get Book Here

Book Description
Science has never been more crucial to deciding the political issues facing the country. Yet science and scientists have less influence with the federal government than at any time since the Eisenhower administration. In the White House and Congress today, findings are reported in a politicized manner; spun or distorted to fit the speaker's agenda; or, when they're too inconvenient, ignored entirely. On a broad array of issues-stem cell research, climate change, missile defense, abstinence education, product safety, environmental regulation, and many others-the Bush administration's positions fly in the face of overwhelming scientific consensus. Federal science agencies, once fiercely independent under both Republican and Democratic presidents, are increasingly staffed by political appointees and fringe theorists who know industry lobbyists and evangelical activists far better than they know the science. This is not unique to the Bush administration, but it is largely a Republican phenomenon, born of a conservative dislike of environmental, health, and safety regulation, and at the extremes, of evolution and legalized abortion. In The Republican War on Science , Chris Mooney ties together the disparate strands of the attack on science into a compelling and frightening account of our government's increasing unwillingness to distinguish between legitimate research and ideologically driven pseudoscience.

Secrecy in the Sunshine Era

Secrecy in the Sunshine Era PDF Author: Jason Ross Arnold
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700619925
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 556

Get Book Here

Book Description
A series of laws passed in the 1970s promised the nation unprecedented transparency in government, a veritable “sunshine era.” Though citizens enjoyed a new arsenal of secrecy-busting tools, officials developed a handy set of workarounds, from over classification to concealment, shredding, and burning. It is this dark side of the sunshine era that Jason Ross Arnold explores in the first comprehensive, comparative history of presidential resistance to the new legal regime, from Reagan-Bush to the first term of Obama-Biden. After examining what makes a necessary and unnecessary secret, Arnold considers the causes of excessive secrecy, and why we observe variation across administrations. While some administrations deserve the scorn of critics for exceptional secrecy, the book shows excessive secrecy was a persistent problem well before 9/11, during Democratic and Republican administrations alike. Regardless of party, administrations have consistently worked to weaken the system’s legal foundations. The book reveals episode after episode of evasive maneuvers, rule bending, clever rhetorical gambits, and downright defiance; an army of secrecy workers in a dizzying array of institutions labels all manner of documents “top secret,” while other government workers and agencies manage to suppress information with a “sensitive but unclassified” designation. For example, the health effects of Agent Orange, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria leaking out of Midwestern hog farms are considered too “sensitive” for public consumption. These examples and many more document how vast the secrecy system has grown during the sunshine era. Rife with stories of vital scientific evidence withheld, justice eluded, legalities circumvented, and the public interest flouted, Secrecy in the Sunshine Era reveals how our information society has been kept in the dark in too many ways and for too long.

Philosophy of Science after Feminism

Philosophy of Science after Feminism PDF Author: Janet A. Kourany
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199750440
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 162

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this monograph Janet A. Kourany argues for a philosophy of science more socially engaged and socially responsible than the philosophy of science we have now. The central questions feminist scientists, philosophers, and historians have been raising about science during the last three decades form Kourany's point of departure and her response to these questions builds on their insights. This way of approaching science differs from mainstream philosophy of science in two crucial respects: it locates science within its wider societal context rather than treating science as if it existed in a social, political, and economic vacuum; and it points the way to a more comprehensive understanding of scientific rationality, one that integrates the ethical with the epistemic. Kourany develops her particular response, dubbed by her the ideal of socially responsible science, beyond the gender-related questions and contexts that form its origins and she defends it against a variety of challenges, epistemological, historical, sociological, economic, and political. She ends by displaying the important new directions philosophy of science can take and the impressive new roles philosophers of science can fill with the approach to science she offers.

Ensuring Open Science at EPA

Ensuring Open Science at EPA PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Science, Space, and Technology (2011). Subcommittee on Environment
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Environmental sciences
Languages : en
Pages : 356

Get Book Here

Book Description


Science, Policy, and the Value-Free Ideal

Science, Policy, and the Value-Free Ideal PDF Author: Heather E. Douglas
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN: 082297357X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 227

Get Book Here

Book Description
The role of science in policymaking has gained unprecedented stature in the United States, raising questions about the place of science and scientific expertise in the democratic process. Some scientists have been given considerable epistemic authority in shaping policy on issues of great moral and cultural significance, and the politicizing of these issues has become highly contentious. Since World War II, most philosophers of science have purported the concept that science should be "value-free." In Science, Policy and the Value-Free Ideal, Heather E. Douglas argues that such an ideal is neither adequate nor desirable for science. She contends that the moral responsibilities of scientists require the consideration of values even at the heart of science. She lobbies for a new ideal in which values serve an essential function throughout scientific inquiry, but where the role values play is constrained at key points, thus protecting the integrity and objectivity of science. In this vein, Douglas outlines a system for the application of values to guide scientists through points of uncertainty fraught with moral valence.Following a philosophical analysis of the historical background of science advising and the value-free ideal, Douglas defines how values should-and should not-function in science. She discusses the distinctive direct and indirect roles for values in reasoning, and outlines seven senses of objectivity, showing how each can be employed to determine the reliability of scientific claims. Douglas then uses these philosophical insights to clarify the distinction between junk science and sound science to be used in policymaking. In conclusion, she calls for greater openness on the values utilized in policymaking, and more public participation in the policymaking process, by suggesting various models for effective use of both the public and experts in key risk assessments.

Science and Political Controversy

Science and Political Controversy PDF Author: David E. Newton
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1610693205
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 349

Get Book Here

Book Description
A shrewd and compelling examination of how political figures throughout history have used scientific findings to achieve their objectives—just as scientists have often put political forces to work to achieve their own goals. The U.S. government has historically been the engine of American scientific achievement, from the birth of nuclear technology to the "space race." However, at times, our government has also misrepresented scientific evidence to advance a political agenda. Science and Political Controversy: A Reference Handbook examines how the government has facilitated research for the public good and the ways in which politicians have manipulated data to serve political ends around a broad array of controversies, from stem cell research to energy development, chemical health risks, and climate change. Written specifically for high school students and general readers without specialized background knowledge on the subject, the work presents perspective essays authored by representatives from governmental agencies, politicians, political scientists, experts in the physical and life sciences, and other stakeholders concerned with the intersection of politics and science. The first section of the book provides background information on the topic that overviews the current problems and issues related to the interaction of science and politics. The second section supplies resources that readers can use for their own research, such as an annotated bibliography, profiles of important individuals and organizations, a chronology of important events, and a glossary of key terms.

Politically Incorrect Guide to Science

Politically Incorrect Guide to Science PDF Author: Tom Bethell
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1596986301
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 299

Get Book Here

Book Description
"If the globe is warming, is mankind responsible, or is the sun?" Such a statement does not appear out of place in Bethell's entertaining account of how modern science is politically motivated and in desperate need of oversight. Bethell writes in a compulsively readable style, and although he provides legitimate insight into the potential benefits of nuclear power and hormesis, some readers will be turned off when he attempts to disprove global warming and especially evolution. Throughout the book, Bethell makes questionable claims about subjects as varied as AIDS ("careful U.S. studies had already shown that at least a thousand sexual contacts are needed to achieve heterosexual transmission of the virus") and extinction ("It is not possible definitely to attribute any given extinction to human activity"), and backs up his arguments with references to the music magazine SPIN and thriller-writer Michael Crichton. Ironically, Bethell ends up proving his own premise by producing a highly politicized account of how liberal intellectuals and unchecked government agencies have created a "white-coated priesthood" whose lust for grant money has driven them to produce fearsome (but in Bethell's view, false) tales of ozone destruction and AIDS pandemics. In the end, this book is unlikely to sway readers who aren't already in Bethell's ideological camp, as any points worthy of discussion get lost in the glut of unsourced claims that populate this latest installment of "The Politically Incorrect Guide" series.

Hot Talk, Cold Science

Hot Talk, Cold Science PDF Author: S. Fred Singer
Publisher: Independent Institute
ISBN: 1598133438
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 196

Get Book Here

Book Description
"In Hot Talk, Cold Science, Fred Singer looks at the issue of climate change the way a physicist should. He asks probing questions and offers reasoned possibilities. He notes the obvious weaknesses that others too often ignore.... Fortunately, some like Dr. Singer still prefer the joys and value of scientific inquiry." —Richard S. Lindzen, Alfred P. Sloan Professor Emeritus of Meteorology, M.I.T. The revised and expanded third edition of Hot Talk, Cold Science forms the capstone of the distinguished astrophysicist Dr. S. Fred Singer's lucid, yet hard scientific look at climate change. And the book is no less explosive than its predecessors—and certainly never more timely. Singer explores the inaccuracies in historical climate data and the failures of climate models, as well as the impact of solar variability, clouds, ocean currents, and sea levels on global climate—plus factors that could mitigate any human impact on world climate. Singer's masterful analysis decisively shows that the pessimistic, and often alarming, global-warming scenarios depicted in the media have no scientific basis. In fact, he finds that many aspects of increased levels of CO2, as well as any modest warming, such as a longer growing seasons for food and a reduced need to use fossil fuels for heating, would have a highly positive impact on the human race. As alarmists clamor to impose draconian government restrictions on entire populations in order to combat "climate change," this book reveals some other startling, stubborn contradictory facts, including: CO2 has not caused temperatures or sea levels to rise beyond historical rates. Severe storms have not increased in frequency or intensity since 1970—neither have heat waves nor droughts. Global "climate change" is not harming coral reefs. Any increases in CO2 concentrations across huge time spans haven't preceded rising global temperatures, they've followed them by about 600 to 800 years—just the opposite of alarmist claims. "Carbon" taxes and other "solutions" to the global warming "crisis" would have severe consequences for economically disadvantaged groups and nations. Alarmist climate scientists have hidden their raw temperature data and deleted emails—then undermined the peer-review system to squelch debate. In sum, despite all the hot talk—and outright duplicity—there is no "climate crisis" resulting from human activities and no such threat on the horizon. With the assistance of renowned climate scientists David R. Legates and Anthony R. Lupo, Singer's Hot Talk, Cold Science is an essential, clear-headed book of scope and substance that no one who claims to value science, the environment, and human well-being can afford to ignore.