Today's Event!
"The Force of Scientific Authority": Nima Bassiri with Amogh Sahu (7pm ET/10am (Wed.) AET
Event Time: 7pm ET/10am (Wed.) AET
The Force of Scientific Authority
Nima Bassiri in conversation with Amogh Sahu
Please note the later start time: 7pm Eastern/10am (Wednesday) Australian Eastern.
A conversation on the spectre of “anti-science” in the Western political imaginary.
Join critical theorist Nima Bassiri and philosopher Amogh Sahu for an exploration of the spectre of “anti-science” in the Western political imaginary and, concomitantly, how the humanistic categories of “critique” and “critical theory” have been increasingly perceived as complicit with, and as providing intellectual succour for, scientific scepticism and, as such, culpable not only with the erosion of scientific truth but with core tenets of liberal democracy itself.
Building on arguments from his 2021 essay, Bassiri will argue that the virulence of anti-scientific conduct may not be cured through mechanisms of educative hygiene alone, for such behaviours are not opposed to, but actually intimately bound up with the nature of scientific authority and to the conduct-inciting truth regimes upon which that authority rests. An unquestioned moral-political investment in the inviolability of the value of truth may not actually stamp out the menace of anti-science, but serve instead to inflame it. You can find out more and register here.
This event is part of a mini-series exploring questions relating to science, anti-science, and pseudoscience in our time. The series is supported by the Challenging Pseudoscience group at the Royal Institution in London with funding from the Open Society Foundations.