Rescheduled for 11 March: UKZN–UNIZULU Philosophy Seminar Series, Wed 11 March:
M. Whitaker
UKZN–UNIZULU Philosophy Seminar Series
Wednesday, 11 March 2026 @ 14h00-15h30
Scientific Objectivity and Democratic Process
Carien Smith
University of Fort Hare
Abstract:
When talking about scientific knowledge, we generally refer to something accepted as the closest approximation to the truth (97% consensus on climate change) or something established as knowledge and unlikely to be disproven (the theory of gravity), both of which result from the labour of a scientific community. I argue that scientific knowledge is the product of a deliberative democratic process within a scientific community with mechanisms that help it produce the kind of knowledge we hope to get from it, and as this deliberative process is similar to a political democratic process and its outcomes, scientific knowledge can, in this sense, be described as objective. When we talk about something being democratic, we assume a kind of objectivity in whatever we label as ‘democratic’ insofar as it is representative of not only one person’s views on a particular matter, but rather a representation of the views of a community of some kind or being legitimate for the public as a whole. I will briefly reflect on Habermas’s ideas on law-making and democracy, and on some of the similarities with scientific enquiry as a foundation for this argument. Most current discussions of objectivity in science focus on values that play a role in scientific enquiry and on their influence on objectivity. An appeal to democratic processes also emphasises the role of values in science, but a particular set of democratic values illustrates how it is possible to say that science is objective in a deliberative sense.
Author Bio:
Carien Smith is a multiple award-winning South African writer and holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Sheffield. In her academic work, she explores questions of scientific expertise, authority, epistemic integrity and reliability, and subjectivity and objectivity in science, especially as they relate to politics, pseudoscience, science denialism, and related conspiratorial beliefs and theories. Her other research interests include climate change ethics, meaning in life, and the apocalypse. She is also interested in how catastrophe is portrayed in fictional works and what impact this has on our responses to catastrophes we face now, such as climate change. These research questions and topics are very closely related to her fictional work. She completed her MA in Philosophy at the University of Johannesburg (Cum Laude, under the supervision of Thaddeus Metz), and her Honours and BA Degrees at the University of Fort Hare (all Cum Laude).
For any queries, please contact:
Gontse J. Lebakeng (Leba...@unizulu.ac.za),
Monique Whitaker (Whit...@ukzn.ac.za), or
Jason van Niekerk (vanNi...@unizulu.ac.za)