This course looks at a burgeoning area in philosophy called “socially relevant philosophy of science” (or SRPOS). In short, SRPOS includes work in philosophy of science that addresses socially relevant issues (e.g., race and gender in scientific research), and which engages a wide variety of stakeholder groups (e.g., policy makers or lay publics) or is disseminated to broader venues (e.g., scientific communities or popular media). Much of the work in SRPOS grows out of work in feminist philosophy of science, as we will discuss, though it can be broader in its analysis. In this course, we will read and discuss recent work in this area, including both programmatic pieces (those that describe and advocate for the importance of SRPOS) as well as exemplars of it.
This course is held with PHIL 458 and PHIL 673.
most recent syllabus available from the Department of Knowledge Integration upon request