Climate debate – with reason?

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In the climate debate, some scientists give the impression that their findings are as immutable as they are certain, thereby creating the necessary focus on the problem that is most important to them.

The philosopher Carl Friedrich Gethmann wants to separate the wheat from the chaff in the climate debate and shows that neither a problem monism nor a false certainty helps. Rather, a critique of “certism”, i.e. the apparent certainty of scientific knowledge, secures the fundamental postulate of the falsifiability of empirical knowledge in the philosophy and ethics of science.

Climate science must convey not only a state of knowledge but also the status of its claims to validity. In this way, a reasonable division of tasks between science and politics can be achieved.

How can a discussion based on the philosophy of science and ethics succeed?

Carl Friedrich Gethmann is Professor of Science Ethics/Medical Ethics in the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Siegen and a member of the German Ethics Council.

In the series “Practical Philosophy?”