Social Theory and Practice 39 (2):241-264 (2013)
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Abstract |
Recent increases in the rates of parental refusal of routine childhood vaccination have eroded many countries’ “herd immunity” to communicable diseases. Some parents who refuse routine childhood vaccines do so because they deny the mainstream medical consensus that vaccines are safe and effective. I argue that one reason these vaccine denialists disagree with vaccine proponents about the reasons in favor of vaccination is because they also disagree about the sorts of practices that are conducive to good reasoning about healthcare choices. Vaccine denialists allocate epistemic authority more democratically than do mainstream medical professionals. They also sometimes make truth ascriptions for nonepistemic reasons, fail to recognize legitimate differences in expertiseand competence, and seek uncritical affirmation of their existing beliefs. By focusing on the different epistemic values and practices of vaccine denialists and mainstream medical professionals, I locate my discussion of vaccine denialism within broader debates about rationality. Furthermore, I argue that gender inequality and gendered conceptions of reason are important parts of the explanation of vaccine denialism. Accordingly, I draw upon feminist work—primarily feminist social epistemology—to help explain and evaluate this form of vaccine refusal
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Keywords | Applied Philosophy Social and Political Philosophy |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
ISBN(s) | 0037-802X |
DOI | 10.5840/soctheorpract201339214 |
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References found in this work BETA
Epistemic Injustice and a Role for Virtue in the Politics of Knowing.Miranda Fricker - 2003 - Metaphilosophy 34 (1/2):154-173.
Citations of this work BETA
Public Misunderstanding of Science? Reframing the Problem of Vaccine Hesitancy.Maya J. Goldenberg - 2016 - Perspectives on Science 24 (5):552-581.
Reasonableness, Credibility, and Clinical Disagreement.Mary Jean Walker & Wendy A. Rogers - 2017 - AMA Journal of Ethics 19 (2):176-182.
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2013-06-12
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