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Abuses of skepticism is a term describing when skepticism either has ulterior motives or is taken to a counterproductive extreme. It has differences from pathological skepticism in motivation and intent. Also the term is more criticism of an individual's thinking rather than their psychology. Also the term is sometimes used by skeptics themselves, whereas "pathological skepticism" usually is not.
Financially motivated skepticism
A common example is the tobacco industry, which at times in history promoted skepticism in smokers regarding the addictiveness or harmfulness of its product. Tobacco companies managed through various efforts to throw doubts on criticism of tobacco.
The oil industry has been accused of doing the same, and for supporting criticism of the theory of anthropogenic global warming. Many environmental activists claim that virtually all critics of global warming are in the pay of oil, gas, or related industries. Others say these are unfair allegations of an "abuse of skepticism."
Religiously motivated skepticism
Religions have at times been accused of promoting skepticism of things that go against their faith. The Catholic Church has been accused of encouraging skepticism regarding the effectiveness of condoms for religious reasons. Scientology has been fairly open in encouraging skepticism of the idea ADHD even exists or that Prozac is ever necessary. In the past members of the Christian Scientists encouraged even non-members to doubt the necessity of vaccinations, but this seems to have ebbed somewhat. Creationists encourage skepticism of the scientific consensus regarding evolution.
Politically motivated skepticism
It could be said to be normal for one political party to encourage skepticism of the others' claims, even when they know those claims to be accurate. There are cases that go beyond that to encouraging skepticism of ideas generally accepted.
There are forms of negationism that involve skepticism. They may feel that their political ideology would not have committed great crimes so need extraordinary proof to believe otherwise. The proof could at times never be extraordinary enough so they never believe it.
For some AIDS reappraisal could be a skepticism based on or used for political motivations. When Thabo Mbeki supported the idea some deemed it to have a political motivation. If this were so it did not work as it cost him more support than it gained for him.
Radical skepticism
In some cases the skepticism is more limited to matters scientific. It tends to dismiss hypotheses out of hand or discourage acceptance of new theories unless they meet unrealistic standards. An oft used example is the slow acceptance of Alfred Wegener's ideas on continental drift. Defenders state this slow acceptance was justified as he lacked sufficient evidence. Another is Fred Hoyle's dismissal of the Big Bang, in part by naming it the Big Bang theory, years after the idea had become mainstream. In more modern times Michael Shermer has occasionally faced criticism as being overly skeptical, or just pessimistic, on issues like life extension or the Drake Equation.
See also
- Kary Mullis-Skeptic of HIV causing AIDS, global warming, and CFC causing ozone depletion
- Michael Shermer was once criticized in an article by the CSICOP for being too harshly critical of speculative ideas.(Specifically life extension, but also SETI by some skeptics)
- The Skeptical Environmentalist is a controversial book by political scientist Bjørn Lomborg, arguing claims over various environmental issues are exaggerations and unsupported by a proper analysis of the relevant data.
- Global warming skepticism is a decades-old dispute about the effects of humans on the global climate.
- Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV-AIDS Hypothesis
- Non-standard cosmology(Some relevance)
External links
- Truzzi, Marcello, "On Pseudo-Skepticism". Anomalist. (Commentary)
- Mooney, Chris, "Abuses of Skepticism : Doubting is a powerful tool, but it can definitely be taken too far". CSICOP, December, 2003.
"Abuses of skepticism"