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Book synopsis

Is science getting at the truth? The sceptics—those who spread doubt about science—often employ a simple argument: scientists were ''sure'' in the past, and then they ended up being wrong. Through a combination of historical investigation and philosophical-sociological analysis, Identifying Future-Proof Science defends science against this potentially dangerous scepticism. Indeed, we can confidently identify many scientific claims that are future-proof: they will last forever, so long as science continues. How do we identify future-proof claims? This appears to be a new question for science scholars, and not an unimportant one. It is argued that the best way to identify future-proof science is to avoid any attempt to analyse the relevant first-order scientific evidence, instead focusing purely on second-order evidence. Specifically, a scientific claim is future-proof when the relevant scientific community is large, international, and diverse, and at least 95 per cent of that community would describe the claim as a ''scientific fact''. In the entire history of science, no claim meeting these criteria has ever been overturned, despite enormous opportunity.

Book details

• Full title: Identifying Future-Proof Science
• Author: Vickers, Peter (Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Centre for Humanities Engaging Science and Society (CHESS), Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Centre for Humanities Engaging
• Language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288
• EAN: 9780198966227
• ID: 47286007
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Weight: 486 g
• Dimensions: 234 × 156 mm
• Date of publishing: 12. May 2025

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