Science and democracy: controversies and conflicts

Intro -- Science and Democracy -- Editorial page -- Title page -- LCC data -- Table of contents -- About the contributors -- Foreword: Like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants -- 1. Archeology of sense -- 2. Sense as intelligibility -- 3. The role of controversies -- 4. The CVS series -- 5. Viaticum -- References -- Introduction: The relationship between science and democracy: Harmonic and confrontational conceptions -- The conception of the intrinsic harmony -- The conception of the unavoidable conflict -- Beyond harmonic and confrontational conceptions -- The structure of the book -- References -- Chapter 1. The dam project: Who are the experts?: A philosophical lesson from the Vajont disaster -- 1. Preliminaries -- 2. The case study: Historical background -- 3. Two areas of neglect in expert judgement -- 4. By way of conclusion: A community of inquirers -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Chapter 2. Rational decisions in a disagreement with experts: Rational decisions in a disagreement with experts -- The problem -- Standard responses -- Increasing complexity I -- Increasing complexity II -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Chapter 3. Rethinking the notion of public: A pragmatist account -- 1. Dewey's conception of public -- 2. Toward a pragmatist philosophy of expertise: The ontology of the public -- 3. The autonomy of the public and the role of experts -- References -- Chapter 4. The expert you are (not): Citizens, experts and the limits of science communication -- Introduction -- 1. The golden age of electoral democracies? -- 2. The asymmetry of science communication -- 3. Scientific facts as black box arguments -- 4. Discovering information on-line: Produsers, filter bubbles, and self-made experts -- 5. The appeal of ignorance and the epistemic bubble -- 6. Desultory scientific information -- 7. Concluding remarks -- References

The relationship between science and democracy has become a much-debated issue. In recent years, we have even seen an exponential growth in literature on the subject. No doubt, the interest has partly been justified by the concern of public opinion over the technological repercussions of scientific research. Moreover, there are scientific theories that, if they were accepted, would allegedly imply the adoption of policies that have wide social consequences, as well as a rethinking of deeply-rooted habits on the part of the citizens. These considerations alone allow us to understand the reasons for the interest in the, at times troublesome, relationships between science and public opinion which characterize democratic societies.