Crisis of scientific community from perspective of postmodern man

U ovom radu nastoji se odgovoriti na pitanje zašto u suvremenom društvu dolazi do odbacivanja znanosti kao referentnog okvira za objašnjenje svijeta. Kako bi se odgovorilo na to pitanje, prvo su pojašnjeni pojmovi teorija zavjera i pseudo-znanosti. Izabrana su ta dva fenomena pošto se smatraju najboljim primjerima anti-znanstvenog mišljenja. Navedeni su podatci o vjerovanju u teorije zavjera te su opisani razlozi za vjerovanje u teorije zavjera. Od razloga su opisani manihejski pogled na povijest, pripisivanje neobičnih fenomena 'nevidljivim' silama te utjecaj koji neetična znanstvena istraživanja mogu imati na pojavu teorija zavjera. Kriza znanosti definirana je pojmom post-istine, erom u suvremenom društvu koji naglašava smanjeno povjerenje u znanost i institucije općenito. Porast vjerovanja u teorije zavjera razmatran je kroz dva teorijska okvira – teorijom društva rizika Ulricha Becka te teorijom (društvene) konstrukcije znanstvenih činjenica Brune Latoura. Nastavno na teoriju (društvene) konstrukcije znanstvenih činjenica, opisan je događaj iz povijesti znanosti s kraja 90ih godina prošlog stoljeća nazvan ratovi znanosti. Na kraju rada prikazano je kvalitativno istraživanje provedeno nad teoretičarima zavjera. Cilj istraživanja bio je istražiti razloge za odbacivanje znanosti kao referentnog okvira za objašnjenje svijeta. Zaključci istraživanja su da relativiziranje znanstvenih postignuća ima izniman utjecaj na odbacivanje znanosti, to jest, na rast konspiratornih stavova.Goal of this paper is answering the question why people are discarding science as reference frame for understanding the world. To answer this question, we first examined phenomena of conspiracy theory and pseudoscience. We chose these phenomena because they are considered to be the best examples of anti-science stance. Data on conspiracy theory belief were presented, as well as reasons for belief in conspiracy theories. Some of the reasons that were presented were Manichean worldview, ascribing unexplainable phenomena to ‘unseen’ forces and role unethical research can have on emergence of conspiracy theory beliefs. Crisis of science was described using the term post-truth, an era of contemporary society in which loss of trust in science and authority in general is amplified. The rise of conspiracy theory belief was examined through two theoretical frames – theory of risk society of Ulrich Beck and theory of (social) construction of scientific facts as presented by Bruno Latour. As a continuation of theory of (social) construction of scientific facts, we took a look at an event from the history of science called science wars which were started in the 1990s. At the end of the paper qualitative research conducted on conspiracy theorists was presented. Goal of the research was to answer the papers main question. Some of the conclusions are that relativization of scientific accomplishments have considerable impact on discarding the science, in other words, on rise of conspiratory beliefs