The Greenhouse, The Oppressed and the Conversation of Humankind: Fiduciary Hermeneutic Fallibilism and the Pragmatic Necessity of Realism (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Human-induced climate change and universal human rights are two intimately connected issues that highlight cognitive dissonances in contemporary scientific and moral/theological discourses. How remarkable that in an age of science and technology in the postChristian West, scientific consensus on climate change is called into question, while at the same time it is an almost unquestioned tenet of twenty-first century faith that all humans are morally equal. Political correctness, self-interest, as well as politics and a smattering of philosophy have turned post-Enlightenment rationality on its head to fuel a debate about whether to trust the judgement of science, while there is little dissent directed at those who proclaim the universal truth of inalienable human rights. In its reaction to the flaws and optimism of post-Enlightenment ultra-rationalism, Western thinking finds itself in a postmodern muddle.