Doubt and Denial: Epistemic Responsibility Meets Climate Change Scepticism

Authors

  • Lorraine Code York University (Toronto)

Keywords:

Ecological thinkers, climate change sceptics, subjectivity, testimony, epistemic responsibility. Pensadores ecológicos, escépticos del cambio climático, subjetividad, testimonio, responsabilidad epistémica.

Abstract

The analysis in this essay is indebted to the analysis of climate change scepticism developed in Naomi Oreskes’s and Eric Conway’s Merchants of Doubt where they expose the vested interests that produce a degree of doubt with respect to climate change science. The argument addresses the appeal to an inflated conception of human freedom – Liberty – that is allegedly threatened by injunctions to control pollution in the interests of ecologically conscious behaviour across a range of human practices of consumption. The essay draws on and advocates rethinking issues about epistemic responsibility and testimonial injustice in working toward developing ecologically informed climate change advocacy.

El análisis de este ensayo está influenciado por el análisis sobre escepticismo ante el cambio climático desarrollado por Naomi Oreskes y Eric Conway en Merchants of Doubt, donde exponen los intereses creados, que producen un grado de duda en relación a la ciencia del cambio climático. El argumento se refiere a la apelación a una concepción exagerada de la libertad humana - la Libertad - , presuntamente amenazada por medidas cautelares para controlar la contaminación en los intereses de la conducta ecológicamente consciente a través de toda una gama de prácticas humanas de consumo. El ensayo se basa en, y aboga por repensar las cuestiones acerca de la responsabilidad epistémica y defiende replantear las cuestiones acerca de la responsabilidad epistémica e injusticia testimonial en el trabajo hacia el desarrollo ecológicamente informado de la defensa del cambio climático.

DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2247830

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Published

30-01-2013

How to Cite

Code, L. (2013) “Doubt and Denial: Epistemic Responsibility Meets Climate Change Scepticism”, Oñati Socio-Legal Series, 3(5), pp. 838–853. Available at: https://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/252 (Accessed: 23 April 2024).

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 5 (2013): Human Rights and the Environment: In Search of a New Relationship

Section

Theme I: Philosophical Re-Investigations

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