83 pages • 2 hours read
Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming
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Essay Topics
There are two quotations at the beginning of the book, also known as an epigraph. Why are they important and how do they reflect the issues discussed?
How can doubt be a commercial product? Can an idea be bought and sold like a commodity? Think of the examples in the text to justify your answer.
What role does fear play within the book? Discuss the fear generated by corporations and the government as well as the fear felt by characters such as Seitz.
Do you believe that science should or can be free from moral judgement? Is there a good (moral) version of science versus a bad (immoral) version of science? Use examples from the text to justify your answer.
Can facts or evidence (scientific, historical, or otherwise) be unbiased? Find examples of biased or unbiased facts within the book to support your claim.
What role does historical context play in the book? How does capitalism affect the narrative? How does communism?
In which case (tobacco, nuclear winter, acid rain, the ozone, global warming) was the authors’ argument the strongest? Which do you feel was the weakest argument? Explain your answer.
What role does fallibility (human, scientific, or otherwise) play within the book?
The authors repeatedly reference Isaiah Berlin’s quotation: “Both liberty and equality are among the primary goals pursued by human beings throughout many centuries; but total liberty for wolves is death to the lambs, total liberty of the powerful, the gifted, is not compatible with the rights to a decent existence of the weak and the less gifted.” How does this quotation apply to the arguments made within the book? Are there any aspects of this quotation that the book fails to account for or unsuccessfully addresses? Explain your answer with evidence from the text.
Critics of this book (and its subsequent film), most notably the Marshall Institute, have labeled the arguments made as ad hominem attacks—that is, fallacies of relevance where someone criticizes another person’s point of view based on personal characteristics, background, physical appearance, and other features irrelevant to the issue—against Seitz, Singer, Jastrow, and Nierenberg. Do you believe that this is a fair critique of this book? Does the fact that this criticism came from the Marshall Institute affect your answer? Why or why not? Explain.
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