Redes de Datos y Modelos: Una Defensa de Latour en la Ciencia del Clima

Hanna Træland Rostøl

doi:10.63413/disputatio.946

Hanna Træland Rostøl University of Bristol, UK

DOI: https://doi.org/10.63413/disputatio.946

Keywords: Climate science, Bruno Latour, Epistemology of science, Objectivity, Values in science

Abstract

In his seminal work Facing Gaia: Eight Lectures on the New Climatic Regime Bruno Latour develops an extensive framework for defining the relationship between humanity, nature, and whatever other entities belong on this Earth. Latour has long been a controversial figure and this recent book also contains unconventional components. In this article, I will defend Latour's account of the practice of climate science against a set of criticisms put forward by Philippe Stamenkovic. I shall show that climate scientists, in line with Latour's conception, both gain their credibility and establish facts in virtue of their highly social and institutional networks, in which their data and models are developed and distributed. Furthermore, I shall show that the separation of climate science from political and subjective values that Stamenkovic advocates is unachievable: Values are an ineliminable part of the climate scientific practice. To drive my argument, I shall examine specific examples from the climate scientific practice, something Stamenkovic neglects to do. As we will see, Stamenkovic's arguments fail to provide a compelling reason to reject Latour's account of climate science.

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Networks of Data and Models— A Defence of Latour on Climate Science

Abstract

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