Le doute dans la science ou la science dans le doute.

Details

Supervisors

Pence, Charles H.

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [60] en philosophie

Abstract

enThe part played by doubt in the production of scientific knowledge is often misunderstood by the general public. Where the scientific community accepts that its activity often implies a mastering of doubt, which often survives in one way or another after scientific inquiry, society seems to consider that the task of science is to produce certainties beyond any doubt. Starting from these divergent conceptions of science, the present work seeks to propose a possible framing for the phenomena of anti-scientific skepticism that have been developing in the second half of the 20th century. It will do so by an analysis of the founding cases of agnotology (climate skepticism, anti-vax, and Big Tobacco cases in the U.S.A.) and mainly from the works of N. Oreskes / E. Conway and R. Proctor.