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Rethinking the BSE Crisis

A Study of Scientific Reasoning under Uncertainty

  • Book
  • © 2010

Overview

Authors:
  1. Louise Cummings

    1. , School of Arts and Humanities, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom

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  • First study of scientific reasoning during the BSE epidemic in the UK
  • Comprehensive discussion of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies that is accessible to non-scientific readers
  • Longitudinal study of scientific reasoning as opposed to study of reasoning at a discrete point in time
  • Examples of reasoning drawn from primary sources (e.g. evidence presented to the public inquiry into BSE; minutes of meetings of scientific advisory committees)

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xv
    Download chapter PDF

  2. BSE – A Leap Into The Unknown

    • Louise Cummings
    Pages 1-33

  3. The Scientific Challenge

    • Louise Cummings
    Pages 35-56

  4. Arguing Through Uncertainty

    • Louise Cummings
    Pages 57-85

  5. Good Arguments During the BSE Inquiry

    • Louise Cummings
    Pages 87-115

  6. The Unravelling of an Argumentative Strategy

    • Louise Cummings
    Pages 117-138

  7. An Unchallengeable Scientific Consensus

    • Louise Cummings
    Pages 139-163

  8. Political and Commercial Interests in the BSE Inquiry

    • Louise Cummings
    Pages 165-192

  9. Learning the Lessons of the BSE Crisis

    • Louise Cummings
    Pages 193-221

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 223-242
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Keywords

About this book

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.

Authors and Affiliations

  • , School of Arts and Humanities, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom

    Louise Cummings

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Rethinking the BSE Crisis

  • Book Subtitle: A Study of Scientific Reasoning under Uncertainty

  • Authors: Louise Cummings

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9504-6

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Medicine, Medicine (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-90-481-9503-9Published: 20 August 2010

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-94-017-8491-7Published: 29 October 2014

  • eBook ISBN: 978-90-481-9504-6Published: 09 August 2010

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XV, 242

  • Topics: Epidemiology, Philosophy of Science, Epistemology, Medicine/Public Health, general, Logic

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