Essay Review: Not Even Wrong about Science and Politics

Abstract

The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney

Science Left Behind: Feel-Good Fallacies and the Rise of the Anti-Scientific Left by Alex B. Berezow and Hank Campbell

“Not even wrong” is the oft-quoted designation by Wolfgang Pauli of something that is not interesting in any way because it is simply beside any substantive point (whereas wrong statements can stimulate fruitful discussion). These books are not even wrong in Pauli’s sense. They purport to discuss the politically motivated distortion and abuse of science, respectively by right-oriented and by left-oriented people and organizations, yet they fail to demonstrate any distortion or abuse of science because they ignore the science altogether. These are political rants which simply accept that any deviation from a mainstream consensus constitutes distortion of science or an attack on science or the purveying of pseudo-science or the practice of “denialism,” a term that is superseding “pseudo-science” as the preferred pejorative used by devoted disciples of scientism. The 2005 book (The Republican War on Science) is included here not only because it has the same sort of basic, logical, and substantive flaws as Science Left Behind but also because the latter is an explicitly intended counter to it. Science Left Behind argues that “progressives” on the Political Left distort and abuse science at least as much as do conservatives or Republicans, who were accused in The Republican War on Science of distorting and abusing science to a far greater degree than “liberals” or Democrats. As I wax highly critical of both books, readers should know that (as of this writing) Amazon reports a 4½-star positive response to The Republican War on Science (some years ago, the Journal of Scientific Exploration [19 (2005), 641–647] also published a favorable review of it) while Science Left Behind has received only a 3-star response. Take those for what they’re worth—in my view, primarily an insight into who the readers are who bother to post opinions on amazon.com. Substantively, both books are equally “not even wrong,” but I agree with the amazon.com consensus to the extent that The Republican War on Science is distinctly better-written; Science Left Behind is notably sloppy and unfocused, and it is replete with cheap ad hominem remarks such as “unless we are filthy rich, like Al Gore, who can afford to plaster his house with inefficient solar panels” (Science Left Behind:19).