Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. Creating Scientific Controversies
  • Cited by 30
      • Show more authors
      • You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Select format
    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      05 October 2015
      01 October 2015
      ISBN:
      9781107706903
      9781107069619
      9781107692367
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107706903
      Dimensions:
      (247 x 174 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.68kg, 266 Pages
      Dimensions:
      (247 x 174 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.54kg, 266 Pages
      • Subjects:
      Science Handbooks, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy, General Science
    You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Selected: Digital
    Add to cart View cart Buy from Cambridge.org
    Subjects:
    Science Handbooks, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy, General Science
    Information

    Book description

    For decades, cigarette companies helped to promote the impression that there was no scientific consensus concerning the safety of their product. The appearance of controversy, however, was misleading, designed to confuse the public and to protect industry interests. Created scientific controversies emerge when expert communities are in broad agreement but the public perception is one of profound scientific uncertainty and doubt. In the first book-length analysis of the concept of a created scientific controversy, David Harker explores issues including climate change, Creation science, the anti-vaccine movement and genetically modified crops. Drawing on work in cognitive psychology, social epistemology, critical thinking and philosophy of science, he shows readers how to better understand, evaluate, and respond to the appearance of scientific controversy. His book will be a valuable resource for students of philosophy of science, environmental and health sciences, and social and natural sciences.

    Reviews

    ‘Harker has produced a valuable book that introduces students to important insights from the philosophy of science and cognitive psychology in order to prepare them for grappling with major debates at the intersection of science and society.'

    Kevin Elliott - Michigan State University

    ‘This is a stimulating and engaging book that introduces some of the core issues in the philosophy of science by taking the reader through a variety of important scientific controversies. By means of this novel approach it offers a useful resource to not only philosophers of science and their students but also anyone concerned about rational decision making and critical thinking in general, including the scientifically literate public and scientists themselves.'

    Steven French - University of Leeds

    ‘This is a unique and important book that addresses a topic of pressing social and political importance with great care and clarity, and an excellent understanding of the relevant science. This is applied philosophy of science at its best.'

    James Ladyman - University of Bristol

    'This book has the look and feel of a classroom text, complete with topics for discussion at the end of each chapter. … Harker spends a good deal of time providing background on the history of the philosophy of science, elementary logic, and the literature on cognitive bias. Each of these topics in and of themselves is useful. Indeed, Harker’s explanation of the problem of underdetermination of theory by evidence was extremely well done. The explanation of the literature on cognitive bias was also a nice compendium of diverse research findings.'

    Lee McIntyre Source: Metascience

    Refine List

    Actions for selected content:

    Select all | Deselect all
    • View selected items
    • Export citations
    • Download PDF (zip)
    • Save to Kindle
    • Save to Dropbox
    • Save to Google Drive

    Save Search

    You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

    Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
    Cancel
    ×

    Contents

    Contents
    References

    Metrics

    Altmetric attention score

    Full text views

    Total number of HTML views: 0
    Total number of PDF views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    Book summary page views

    Total views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    * Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

    Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

    Accessibility standard: WCAG 2.2 AAA

    Why this information is here

    This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

    Accessibility Information

    The PDF of this book complies with version 2.2 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), offering more comprehensive accessibility measures for a broad range of users and attains the highest (AAA) level of WCAG compliance, optimising the user experience by meeting the most extensive accessibility guidelines.

    Content Navigation
    Table of contents navigation

    Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.

    Index navigation

    Provides an interactive index, letting you go straight to where a term or subject appears in the text without manual searching.

    Reading Order and Textual Equivalents
    Single logical reading order

    You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.

    Full alternative textual descriptions

    You get more than just short alt text: you have comprehensive text equivalents, transcripts, captions, or audio descriptions for substantial non‐text content, which is especially helpful for complex visuals or multimedia.

    Visualised data also available as non‐graphical data

    You can access graphs or charts in a text or tabular format, so you are not excluded if you cannot process visual displays.

    Visual Accessibility
    Use of high contrast between text and background colour

    You benefit from high‐contrast text, which improves legibility if you have low vision or if you are reading in less‐than‐ideal lighting conditions.