A Pragmatist Orientation For The Social Sciences In Climate Policy: How To Make Integrated Economic Assessments Serve Society (boston Studies In The Philosophy And History Of Science)

Annotation While economic and other social science expertise is indispensable for successful public policy-making regarding global climate change, social scientists face trade-offs between the scientific credibility, policy-relevance, and legitimacy of their policy advice. From a philosophical perspective, this book systematically addresses these trade-offs and other crucial challenges facing the integrated economic assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Based on John Dewey s pragmatist philosophy and an analysis of the value-laden nature and reliability of climate change economics, the book develops a refined science-policy model and specific guidelines for these assessments of climate policy options. The core idea is to scientifically explore the various practical implications of alternative climate policy pathways in an interdisciplinary manner, together with diverse stakeholders. This could facilitate an iterative, deliberative public learning process concerning disputed policy issues. This volume makes novel contributions to three strands of the literature: (1) the philosophy of (social) science in policy; (2) the philosophy of economics; and (3) debates about the design of scientific assessments, including the continuous IPCC reform debate. This work is thus interesting for philosophers and other scholars reflecting on the science-policy interface, but also for assessment practitioners, climate policy-makers, and economists. The science-policy approach developed in this volume has already influenced the recent socio-economic IPCC assessment." While economic and other social science expertise is indispensable for successful public policy-making regarding global climate change, social scientists face trade-offs between the scientific credibility, policy-relevance, and legitimacy of their policy advice. From a philosophical perspective, this book systematically addresses these trade-offs and other crucial challenges facing the integrated economic assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Based on John Deweyĺls pragmatist philosophy and an analysis of the value-laden nature and reliability of climate change economics, the book develops a refined science-policy model and specific guidelines for these assessments of climate policy options. The core idea is to scientifically explore the various practical implications of alternative climate policy pathways in an interdisciplinary manner, together with diverse stakeholders. This could facilitate an iterative, deliberative public learning process concerning disputed policy issues. This volume makes novel contributions to three strands of the literature: (1) the philosophy of (social) science in policy; (2) the philosophy of economics; and (3) debates about the design of scientific assessments, including the continuous IPCC reform debate. This work is thus interesting for philosophers and other scholars reflecting on the science-policy interface, but also for assessment practitioners, climate policy-makers, and economists. The science-policy approach developed in this volume has already influenced the recent socio-economic IPCC assessment Front Matter....Pages i-xvii Introduction....Pages 1-15 Front Matter....Pages 17-17 The Need for an Integrated Economic Assessment of Climate Policy Options....Pages 19-46 Fundamental Perils for Scientific Assessments....Pages 47-77 Front Matter....Pages 79-79 Prevalent Action-Guiding Models of Scientific Expertise in Policy....Pages 81-100 Fact/Value Conflation and the Danger of the Traditional Models....Pages 101-132 Pragmatism: Objectivity Despite Fact/Value Entanglement....Pages 133-169 Front Matter....Pages 171-171 Understanding and Evaluating the IAM-Based Economics....Pages 173-195 Ethics in Climate Economics: Balance or Bias?....Pages 197-227 Trust Them? The Epistemic Quality of Climate Economics....Pages 229-247 An Evaluation of the IPCC WG III Assessments....Pages 249-272 Front Matter....Pages 273-273 Elements of a Guideline for Future Integrated Economic Assessments of the IPCC....Pages 275-299 Potential Implications of the IPCC Reform: Deliberative Learning and Difficulties of In-Depth Policy Assessment....Pages 301-326