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January 23, 2026Philosophy of Science0 citations

Unreasonable Doubt. How Strategic Science Skeptics Exploit the Argument from Disagreement

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ARAlexander Reutlinger

Key Points

  • This analysis aims to identify and critique the argument from disagreement used by strategic science skeptics, providing a deeper philosophical insight.
  • Analyzing the philosophical literature on the argument from disagreement.
  • Developing a Bayesian Justificatory Account of Multiple Testimony.
  • Evaluating how agreements and disagreements can confirm or disconfirm scientific claims.
  • The argument from disagreement is shown to lack solid philosophical grounding.
  • A normative characterization of multiple testimony is proposed, linking it to epistemic confidence in scientific claims.

Abstract

Abstract Strategic science skeptics criticize scientific claims solely to promote non-epistemic goals. I will analyze and debunk a philosophically neglected argument exploited by strategic science skeptics: the argument from disagreement. The core of this argument is that one should lower one’s confidence in a scientific claim when having learned that there is a scientific disagreement about this claim. I will develop a (Bayesian) Justificatory Account of Multiple Testimony to provide a normative characterization of how learning about agreements and disagreements is connected to confirming and disconfirming scientific claims. I will use this account to debunk the argument from disagreement.

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Cite This Study

Alexander Reutlinger (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69730f9fc8125b09b0d1f70bhttps://doi.org/10.1017/psa.2026.10195
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