It has been much debated whether epistemic relativism in academia, for instance in the form of social constructivism, the strong programme, deconstructionism, and postmodernism, has paved the way for the recent upsurge in science denial, in particular climate science denial. In order to provide an empirical basis for this discussion, an extensive search of the social science literature was performed. It showed that in the 1990s, climate science was a popular target among academic epistemic relativists. In particular, many STS scholars used it as an allegedly clear example of claims by natural scientists that should be treated as mere social constructions, rather than as reports on the actual state of the natural world. A few connections between social constructivists and corporate science denialism were also uncovered, but the extent of such connections could not be determined. With few exceptions, the stream of criticism of climate science from academic relativists has dwindled since the 1990s. One reason for this seems to be that the contrarian position lost its attraction when it became associated with corporate and right-wing propagandists.

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社会建构主义与气候科学否认

学术界的认识论相对论，例如以社会建构主义，强有力的纲领，解构主义和后现代主义等形式的相对论，是否为近来科学否定，特别是气候科学否定的高涨铺平了道路，这已经引起了广泛的争论。为了提供这一讨论的经验基础，对社会科学文献进行了广泛的搜索。它表明，在1990年代，气候科学是学术认识论相对论者的热门目标。特别是，许多STS学者将其用作自然科学家声称的明确证据的例子，应将其视为纯粹的社会建构，而不应作为有关自然世界实际状况的报告。还发现了社会建构主义者和公司科学否定主义之间的一些联系，但是无法确定此类连接的程度。自1990年代以来，几乎没有例外，学术相对主义者对气候科学的批评之声逐渐减少。造成这种情况的原因之一似乎是，当与公司和右翼宣传家联系在一起时，逆势立场就失去了吸引力。