期刊名称：Spontaneous Generations : A Journal for the History and Philosophy of Science
印刷版ISSN：1913-0465
出版年度：2007
卷号：1
期号：1
页码：36
语种：English
出版社：University of Toronto
摘要：Begin with a bit of political theory, in this case the emblematic passage in the most consequential political theory text of the twentieth century, Carl Schmitt’s Concept of the Political: [...] What does this have to do with expertise? Plenty. Expert claims routinely “affect, combat, refute, and negate” someone or some faction or grouping of persons. When scientists proclaim the truth of Darwinism, they refute, negate, and whatnot the Christian view of the creation, and thus Christians. When research is done on racial differences, it affects, negates, and so on, those who are negatively characterized. This is why Phillip Kitcher argues that it should be banned (2001, 95). Some truths are too dangerous to ever inquire into, because, he reasons, even by inquiring we legitimate the negation that racial distinctions already carry. Expert claims also favour or disfavour policies or decisions which have factions or persons supporting them. When Robert Oppenheimer insisted on technical grounds that the H- Bomb was unfeasible, his opinion disfavoured, not to say negated and combated, the faction that supported the decision and favoured the position of Stalin (cf. Turner 2003). Claims about the human contribution to climate change favour the faction that believes in an extensive role of the state in regulating the economy. All these claims are “political”...
