Rethinking the BSE Crisis (eBook)

A Study of Scientific Reasoning under Uncertainty

Louise Cummings (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2010 | 2010
XV, 242 Seiten
Springer Netherland (Verlag)
978-90-481-9504-6 (ISBN)

Infos

In 1986, the emergence of a novel brain disease in British cattle presented a unique challenge to scientists. How that challenge was addressed has been the subject of a public inquiry and numerous academic studies conducted to date. However, none of these investigations has sought to examine the reasoning of scientists during this critical period in the public health of the UK. Using concepts and techniques in informal logic, argumentation and fallacy theory, this study reconstructs and evaluates the reasoning of scientists in the ten-year period between 1986 and 1996. Specifically, a form of presumptive reasoning is described in which extensive use is made of arguments traditionally identified as informal fallacies. In the context of the adverse epistemic conditions that confronted scientists during the BSE epidemic, these arguments were anything but fallacious, serving instead to confer a number of epistemic gains upon scientific inquiry. This book argues for a closer integration of philosophy with public health science, an integration that is exemplified by the case of scientific reasoning during the BSE affair. It will therefore be of interest to advanced students, academics, researchers and professionals in the areas of public health science and epidemiology, as well as philosophical disciplines such as informal logic, argumentation and fallacy theory and epistemology.

Inhalt

Preface 6
Acknowledgements 8
Contents 9
List of Figures 11
List of Diagrams 12
1 BSE A Leap Into The Unknown 13
1.1 Introduction 13
1.2 Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies 14
1.2.1 Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease 14
1.2.2 Kuru 17
1.2.3 Gerstmann-Sträussler Syndrome 22
1.2.4 Scrapie 24
1.2.5 Transmissible Mink Encepalopathy 29
1.2.6 Chronic Wasting Disease 31
1.3 The BSE Knowledge Problem 34
1.3.1 The Knowledge Problem Exposed 35
1.3.2 The Knowledge Problem Bridged 38
1.4 Notes 41
2 The Scientific Challenge 46
2.1 Introduction 46
2.2 The Current Paradigm in Epidemiology 47
2.2.1 Theoretical Development in Epidemiology 47
2.2.2 Epidemiology and Other Disciplines 49
2.2.3 Reasoning and Epidemiology 50
2.2.4 Spatiotemporal Factors and Epidemiology 52
2.3 Early Epidemiological Investigations 54
2.4 Notes 62
3 Arguing Through Uncertainty 68
3.1 Introduction 68
3.2 Presumption and Science 71
3.2.1 Feature 1: Presumptions Display an Orientation to Action 72
3.2.2 Feature 2: Presumptions Exhibit Rational Justification 73
3.2.3 Feature 3: Presumptions are Inherently Defeasible 74
3.2.4 Feature 4: Presumptions Display Context Sensitivity 76
3.2.5 Feature 5: Presumptions Have a Low-Grade Epistemic Status 77
3.3 Presumption and Uncertainty Management 79
3.4 Presumption, Reasoning and Fallacies 85
3.5 Notes 89
4 Good Arguments During the BSE Inquiry 97
4.1 Introduction 97
4.2 The Early Years: 1986--1989 101
4.2.1 Argument from Analogy 102
4.2.2 Argument from Ignorance 107
4.2.3 Question-Begging Argument 113
4.3 Summary 117
4.4 Notes 119
5 The Unravelling of an Argumentative Strategy 126
5.1 Introduction 126
5.2 The Middle Years: 1989--1994 128
5.2.1 Argument from Analogy 129
5.2.2 Argument from Ignorance 134
5.2.3 False Attribution of a Part to a Whole 137
5.3 Summary 142
5.4 Notes 143
6 An Unchallengeable Scientific Consensus 148
6.1 Introduction 148
6.2 The Final Years: 1994--1996 149
6.2.1 Argument from Analogy 150
6.2.2 Argument from Ignorance 156
6.2.3 Arguing to the Wrong Conclusion 160
6.3 Summary 165
6.4 Notes 167
7 Political and Commercial Interests in the BSE Inquiry 173
7.1 Introduction 173
7.2 Reasoning and Non-scientific Interests in the BSE Inquiry 173
7.2.1 Argument from Authority 177
7.2.2 Argument Against the Person 184
7.2.3 Argument from Analogy 190
7.3 Summary 192
7.4 Notes 193
8 Learning the Lessons of the BSE Crisis 201
8.1 Introduction 201
8.2 A Model of Reasoning in Scientific Inquiry 205
8.2.1 A Model of Reasoning in Early Inquiry 206
8.2.2 A Model of Reasoning in Middle Inquiry 209
8.2.3 A Model of Reasoning in Late Inquiry 212
8.3 The Model, Risk Analysis and Public Health Science 216
8.3.1 The Precautionary Principle 217
8.3.2 As Low As Reasonably Practicable 220
8.4 Summary 221
8.5 Notes 222
Bibliography 230
Index 245

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 9.8.2010
• Zusatzinfo: XV, 242 p.
• Verlagsort: Dordrecht
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Erkenntnistheorie / Wissenschaftstheorie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Logik
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Studium ► Querschnittsbereiche ► Epidemiologie / Med. Biometrie
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
• Themenwelt: Veterinärmedizin
• Schlagworte: argue • Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) • Epidemiological • epidemiology • Epistemology • Formal Logic • Knowledge • Logic • Public Health • reason • Reasoning • Science • Subject • Uncertainty
• ISBN-10: 90-481-9504-7 / 9048195047
• ISBN-13: 978-90-481-9504-6 / 9789048195046