Abstract
The symposium session, Consensus and Dissent in Science: New Perspectives, will end with a commentary on the papers by Miriam Solomon. Solomon has extensively studied the social epistemology of consensus and dissent. For example, Solomon (2001) criticizes the view that consensus is an aim of, or a regulative ideal for scientific inquiry. According to her, the existence of scientific dissent is normal, and a distribution of different views in the scientific community that is proportional to each view’s relative empirical success is the desirable normative situation. In Solomon (2015), she appreciates the importance of consensus in medicine, and, more specifically, the institution of consensus conferences. Solomon will evaluate the papers in the symposium within the wider context of social epistemic critiques of consensus building in science. Solomon, M. (2001). Social Empiricism. MIT Press. Solomon, M. (2015). Making Medical Knowledge. Oxford University Press.
