Facts and Values: How Does Science Inform Democracy?

 

Moderator:

Don Hubin (Ohio State, Philosophy/Center for Ethics and Human Values)

 

A crucial issue underlying public debates about sustainability concerns how scientific information is taken up by citizens and then represented within democratic deliberation. A series of influential studies in psychology have suggested that individuals’ political commitments significantly affect how they process scientific findings and accommodate them within their belief systems. What exactly do these findings show and to what extent do they threaten the prospects for informed public deliberation about the challenges facing our democracy in the 21st century, including sustainability and climate change?

 

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