What distinguishes science from other kinds of knowledge?
Where does a scientist's authority and responsibility begin and end?
Where do the boundaries between science and politics lie?
These seem like rather philosophical questions, and indeed they are, but when a Home Secretary sacks his scientific advisor they take on a political significance as well. And here's the thing: events such the David Nutt affair play an important role in the philosophy of science. They are not merely subject to the philosophy of science - they help to determine what science is.
Most people assume that answers to questions like 'what distinguishes science from other kinds of knowledge?' reside in the logic of science itself. And they are not wrong; there are good reasons to believe there is a 'right' answer to the question – one that is not subject to negotiation. For some people the right answer to the question 'what distinguishes science?' is the idea that there is a 'scientific method' that guarantees progress towards 'truth'. For others (including me) the essential quality of science that distinguishes it from other forms of knowledge is the social network that validates scientific knowledge and allows us to have confidence about the conclusions we come to. Nevertheless, in almost all situations where questions like the ones above arise, 'what science is' matters less than 'what science is taken to be'.Whether or not there are essential characteristics that ultimately distinguish proper scientists from charlatans, this does not mean that there will be no struggle over definitions. Even if there is a ‘true’ or ‘natural’ boundary between science and non-science, there is no way of discursively demarcating science that will be convincing in all circumstances. To put this another way: however necessary essential characteristics may be to science, they are not sufficient to explain scientists’ cultural authority. Further reading:PhD thesis: The popularisation of physics: boundaries of authority and the visual culture of science (http://bit.ly/3ej2d3)
See also: The boundaries of science