Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

which knowledge about the treatment
through
AIDS was being produced. This type of citizen
of
blurs the lines between expert and
involvement
and redistributes the balances of
non-expert,
To what extent is it the responsibility of
1.
to understand and engage with
citizens
Often non-experts who get deeply involved
2.
scientific controversies do so through
in
personal effort. To what extent is this
great
failing of science and politics to inspire
a
are contextual, meaning they
Disagreements
embedded in the historical, cultural,
are
or economic issues of the time, and can
political
on an importance much larger than the
take
minutiae at stake. A profound
techno-scientific
of this was AIDS denialism that took
example
in South Africa in the 1990s and 2000s,
hold
story that was ably illustrated by Michael
a
writing in the New Yorker in
Specter,
2007.
March
terms: New Yorker
Search
The denialists
Specter
short version of the story is that a group of
The
sceptics in the 1990s, calling themselves
HIV
Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of
the
HIV/AIDS Hypothesis, put forward the
the
AIDS should not be treated with
•
drugs, which are poisons
antiretroviral
far worse side effects than the
with
itself.
disease
South Africa did not have an AIDS
•
Instead, too much recreational
epidemic.
these questions for discussion in mind, let’s
With
at an example of the power of politicians
look
bolster or undermine the credibility and
to
of science in the public, and what
authority
when science and politics clash on an
happens
of public health.
issue
and confidence in the knowledge
trust
they make?
claims
Think of a public controversy on a scientific
3.
relevant to your context currently
issue
recently. What determines whether
or
how the public can engage with the
and
sharing and evaluation of scientific
making,
claims?
knowledge
use, and too little nutrition and clean
drug
were killing its people.
water,
group included scientists such as Peter
The
whose ideas were introduced in
Duesberg,
The group’s scientific claims were seized
II.3.
by policy-makers and political leaders in
upon
Africa, in a discourse that was heavily
South
by the legacy of apartheid and
complicated
climate of widespread distrust towards
a
pharmaceutical companies. Other
Western
people were involved: a doctor
influential
entrepreneur who marketed vitamins
turned
an alternative to retroviral drugs; local
as
and healers who used herbal
entrepreneurs
and national leaders including
concoctions;
Thabo Mbeki and Health Minister
President
Tshabalala-Msimang who were deeply
Manto
of Western pharmaceuticals and
sceptical
doctors who prescribed them. All of this
the
to deny South Africans access to
conspired
best practice, as agreed upon by the
medical
scientific community. In the following
global
the death rate from AIDS in South Africa
years,
the Harvard AIDS initiative produced a
soared:
in 2008 that estimated 300,000 preventable
study
resulting from delayed AIDS treatment.
deaths
II. Perspectives
II. Perspectives
power, credibility and trust.
For discussion
Trust and credibility
scientific issues of public importance?
Box 7.6: Disagreement in the public eye
followingclaims.
• HIV does not cause AIDS.
189