ABSTRACT
The chapter explores the relationship between science and democracy and argues for the importance of engaging with a multiplicity of theories of democracy. It begins by discussing, in the second section of this chapter, traditional claims about the purported kinship between science and democracy, from simplistic conditional relationships to Dewey's more nuanced understanding grounded in a shared epistemic attitude. The third section of this chapter moves on to contemporary accounts of science's role in democracies which are predominantly based on liberal political theories. From this perspective, the importance of science's independence from political interference, combined with a responsibility to respect public values or principles of justice, can be supported with good reason, as explored in the fourth section of this chapter. Finally, the fifth section of this chapter engages with critiques of liberal democratic theory, particularly from non-ideal and agonistic perspectives, to reflect on the limitations of two kinds of idealized assumptions in discussions of the science-democracy relation: The focus on autonomous individuals and the aspiration of establishing a non-political common ground or consensus through science. This shows that the question of the role of science in democratic politics cannot be discussed separately from the question of how to understand democracy.
Readers may also be interested in the Handbook chapters by Karoliina Pulkkinen and S. Andrew Schroeder.
