Attacks on research have become commonplace. Statements that climate transformation isn’t settled research, that evolution is “only a theory,” and that scientists are conspiring to keep the truth about vaccines from the public are staples of some politicians’ rhetorical repertoire. Defenders of research often indicate its discoveries (penicillin! relativity!) without explaining exactly why scientific claims are excellent. In this book, Lee McIntyre argues that what distinguishes research from its rivals is exactly what about The Scientific Attitude: Defending Science from Denial, Scams, and Pseudoscience he phone calls ‘the technological attitude’-caring about evidence and being ready to switch theories based on new evidence. The history of science is certainly littered with theories that were medical but turned out to be wrong; the technological attitude discloses why a good failed theory can help us to understand what is unique about science.

McIntyre offers good examples that illustrate both scientific success and failure. He represents the transformation of medicine from a practice centered largely on hunches into a research based on evidence; considers scientific scams; examines the positions of ideology-driven denialists, pseudoscientists, and ‘skeptics’ who reject scientific results; and argues that sociable technology, no less than natural technology, should embrace the technological attitude.