Thabo Mbeki, postmodernism, and the consequences

Abstract

Explanations of former South African President Thabo Mbeki's public and private views on the aetiology of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country remain partial at best without the recognition that the latter presuppose a postmodernist/postcolonialist philosophy of science that erases the line separating the political from the scientific. In fact, evidence from Mbeki's public speeches, interviews, and private and anonymous writings suggests that it was postmodernist/postcolonialist theory that inspired him to doubt the ‘Western’ scientific consensus on HIV/AIDS, and to implement a public health policy that dragged its feet on full roll-out of antiretroviral therapy, causing thousands of avoidable deaths. A weak reductio ad absurdum would allow us to conclude from this that postmodernist/postcolonial critique of ‘Western’ science ought to be shunned. However, since the evidence, albeit strong, is not conclusive, a comparative argument from consequences is preferred, that in a situation where a misguided health policy has led to a humanitarian catastrophe, and where postmodernist/postcolonialist critique of science can be used to justify this policy, an alternative theory of science ought to be preferred on which such justification would not be possible. The paper closes with a call for a non-relativist alternative to postmodernist/postcolonialist philosophy of science, and evaluates the potential of recent developments in ‘Studies of Expertise’ to yield such.