As diferentes faces da razão (II). Risco, ciência e peritos

Abstract

In a previous text, the authors argued against the excessive scientism with which António Manuel Baptista, following Sokal and Bricmont, attacks the sociological analyses of scientific processes and products, especially the positions of Boaventura de Sousa Santos. The aim of the present text is to contest AMB and Sokalists in their own field, that of pure and hard science, showing how they themselves do not understand the status of their sciences, and seeking to reflect on less precise assertions, which often occur in the analysis of the sociogenesis of science. Bringing the discussion into our own time-period, they also address the question of the status of scientists and technologists as experts in decision-making bodies. Finally, they discuss how controversies among experts, increasingly frequent, are experienced within the scientific community, and the developments they generate in expert practice itself.

Keywords

• scientific community
• science
• sociology of science
• scientific controversy
• epistemology