October 18, 5 pm Mario Biagioli (UCLA Law and Information Studies)

(please note the later time)

This paper moves from the recent findings of agnotologists (like the book Merchants of Doubt) about the post-WWII strategy by tobacco and oil companies to cast doubt about the scientific evidence concerning, respectively, the risks of tobacco smoking and the existence of global warming. I argue that a new chapter of that strategy book was recently articulated in Trump’s EPA. This is a strategy that does not hinge on the production of doubt about the content of scientific knowledge but rather targets and transforms some of the key ethical norms of science (openness, transparency, and impartiality), effectively turning them against themselves.

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