ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Trust, Belief and Power

• In Event: Trust, Distrust, Faith and Disbelief

English Abstract

In addressing lay audiences, I shall suggest that just as Whitehead argued that scientists needed to take account of lay views of nature, so historians need to take account of lay views of science. At a time when even elected governments are disparaging the institutions of science and covid vaccines are avoided by many, we need to address others’ concerns and ambitions, with good history drawing on facts and scholarship. My paper suggests that those seeking to address lay people should develop a view of the past that not only allows in lay people, but is rather centred on them.
The historical perspective which I would advocate focusses on three dimensions. Trust and distrust in institutions is the first. Studies of the covid vaccine crisis and of climate hesitancy have shown the importance and long-standing significance of distrust in institutions, separate from knowledge itself. Secondly, there are questions of the public credibility of knowledge claims themselves, whether these relate to the use of vitamin pills and, later, antibiotics, evolution or “genes for” a variety of conditions or the safety of genetically modified organisms. The third issue is the awe and fear inspired by the power of science. The most obvious example is the atomic bomb. Here I have highlighted a few, already familiar examples. They each prompt the challenge to develop not just more studies of themselves but also of the under-analysed and under-researched generic historical issues they highlight. This would involve both more case studies such as those in this session and different master narratives building further on rich existing historiography. The objective is to promote a history that lay people can recognise as the past of their own experience and culture, rather than that of an alien subculture.

Author

• Robert Bud, The Science Museum, London