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“Antiscience Zealotry”? Values, Epistemic Risk, and the GMO Debate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Justin B. Biddle
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Abstract

This article argues that the controversy over genetically modified crops is best understood not in terms of the supposed bias, dishonesty, irrationality, or ignorance on the part of proponents or critics, but rather in terms of differences in values. To do this, the article draws on and extends recent work of the role of values and interests in science, focusing particularly on inductive risk and epistemic risk, and it shows how the GMO debate can help to further our understanding of the various epistemic risks that are present in science and how these risks might be managed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 85 , Issue 3 , July 2018 , pp. 360 - 379
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†.

A preliminary version of this article was presented at the 2017 Conference on Values in Medicine, Science, and Technology at the University of Texas at Dallas. Thanks to the conference participants, as well as to Michael Hoffman, Bryan Norton, Neil Van Leeuwen, John Walsh, and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback.

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