Conspiracism as a Litmus Test for Responsible Innovation

Eugen Octav Popa*, Vincent Blok

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterAcademicpeer-review

    1 Citation (Scopus)
    11 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    The inclusion of stakeholders in science is one of the core ideas in the field of responsible innovation. Conspiracists, however, are not your garden-variety stakeholders. As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, the conflict between conspiracists and science is deep and intractable. In this paper, we ask how the game of responsible innovation can be played with those who believe that the game is rigged. Understanding the relationship between conspiracism and responsible innovation is necessary in order to understand the unvisited corners of the science-society interface in the post-pandemic future. We claim that pluralism, already part of the philosophical background that spurred responsible innovation, can offer insights into how conspiracism can be approached. As a case in point, we develop these insights starting from the policy on conspiracism developed in 2021 by the European Commission. We show that the ideal of inclusion can only be extended to conspiracists by accepting a pluralist framework, and we explain this pluralist response.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationValues for a Post-Pandemic Future
    PublisherSpringer Nature
    Pages111-128
    Number of pages18
    ISBN (Electronic)978-3-031-08424-9
    ISBN (Print)978-3-031-08426-3, 978-3-031-08423-2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 14 Sept 2022

    Publication series

    NamePhilosophy of Engineering and Technology
    Volume40
    ISSN (Print)1879-7202
    ISSN (Electronic)1879-7210

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