ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on that philosophical tradition: specifically, on the limits of classic realist and related representationalist understandings of knowledge and human cognition, and on alternative constructivist-pragmatist accounts, often labeled “relativist,” that offer more useful perspectives on some of the conceptual and practical perplexities presented by climate change. As emphasized by environmentalists, there is a virtual consensus of informed scientists regarding the destabilizing, destructive effects of anthropogenic climate change, and one could claim a virtual consensus of academics, well-intentioned people regarding the need for a set of appropriate responses. Many scientists and environmental activists write as if geophysical facts will triumph of themselves or will do so when the machinations of “merchants of doubt” are exposed. Historians and political scientists, especially as spurred by climate change, have recently joined sociologists of science in noting the limits of the so-called “deficit model” of science communication, which tends to portray scientists as inherently credible deliverers of accurate information to an ignorant public.
