Understanding Science in a Time of Science Denial

A basic science education is all that a majority of people will ever receive. And yet, public support for scientific research and science-based policies seems crucial if we are to tackle some of the most serious challenges we have ever faced. Given realistic limitations on the amount of science most people will learn, what sort of public understanding of it would promote this kind of support – not least in the face of science denialism and resistance? In this lecture, I consider what our aims should be for science education and public understanding, in hopes of engaging the sciences to enrich our lives and make the world a better place.

Anjan Chakravartty is the Appignani Foundation Professor of Philosophy at the University of Miami. Previously he was Director of the John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values at the University of Notre Dame, and Director of the Institute for History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and former Editor of the journal Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, holding degrees in biophysics and philosophy, and a Ph.D. in history and philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge.