Skip navigation Syracuse University Humanities Center

Lights Out: The Rise and Fall of Scientific Authority

Robert_Crease.jpg

Time: Oct. 17, 2019, 3:30 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Location: 202 Physics

Robert Crease (Stony Brook University)

Over the past 400 years, the U.S. and other nations have built up what is now in effect a global scientific workshop, making great contributions to human life. How has mistrust of science, its institutions, and its findings become an established feature of the political landscape? It is tempting to think that scientific authority is natural and will soon reassert itself, like a sturdy, self-righting boat knocked over by a rogue wave.  But as Crease argues in The Workshop and the World: What Ten Thinkers Can Teach Us about Science and Authority, the very strengths of science create vulnerabilities that allow detractors to question scientific findings with a veneer of plausibility. 

In this public talk, Crease reviews some experiences of early proponents of the authority of science, the resistance that they encountered, and how they responded, in order to help understand and confront modern-day science denial.

Eric Schiff, Physics