Table of Contents: - Hempel Award Call
- Short Reads by Grads
- Call for new Short Reads
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Election Nomination Call
- PSA24 Call Open
- PSA24 Website
- PSA24 Early Bird Sponsors
- Calendar of Events & Calls for Papers - Upcoming Dates
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Nominations may now be made for the 2024 Hempel Award, a biennial award recognizing lifetime scholarly achievement in the philosophy of science. The Hempel Award is named in honor of Carl Gustav Hempel (1905-1997), one of the twentieth century’s leading philosophers of science and an active PSA member for over fifty years. The award will be presented prior to the PSA Presidential Address at PSA2024 in New Orleans, Louisiana, November 16, 2024.
The Prize Committee for the Hempel Award consists of the current PSA Governing Board or its designated subcommittee. Nominations for the Hempel Award should include a full CV and between three and five detailed letters of support; the latter should address the nominee’s scholarly achievements, construed broadly to include not only the specific research of the nominee but also the nominee's larger impact on the scholarly community of philosophers of science (including training and mentorship, public outreach, professional work for the Philosophy of Science Association, and other community-building activities). Self-nominations will be accepted. Nominees and nominators should be members of the Philosophy of Science Association. Current Governing Board members may not participate in a nomination.
Nominations must be submitted electronically to office@philsci.org no later than May 31, 2024. Questions about the Hempel Award should be directed to Max Cormendy, PSA Executive Director, at director@philsci.org. Members who wish to renominate a candidate from the previous round can send a note to Executive Director Max Cormendy. No additional materials will be required, but the nominator may add to the file should she or he so wish. |
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The PSA is pleased to share its fifth installment of Short Reads by Grads. Kathryn Petrozzo is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Utah, working broadly on issues at the intersection of philosophy of neuroscience, psychiatry, and law. Her dissertation project is focused on how mental illness is conceptualized in the contexts of cognition, neurobiology and responsibility. She is concerned with how these conceptualizations are employed in legal settings and the subsequent harmful consequences.
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Review of Commodification of Academic Research (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012) By Kathryn Petrozzo
This collection of essays assembled by Hans Radder is the byproduct of an interdisciplinary, international conference concerning the commodification of scientific research. Rather than use the more common term of “commercialization,” Radder employs “commodification” to broadly encompass the monetization of academic research, as well as the comprehensive social dynamics of various institutions (p.4). The upshot of utilizing this broad concept is that it captures a wide variety of cases, far beyond just the instances of external funding of academic research (p.5). However, it is worth noting that this introductory conceptualization of what is meant by commodification is merely a brief pass at a complex, multifaceted issue. Radder opens up the conceptual space with this definition, though in their respective essays, Mark Brown, Martin Carrier Daniel Kleinman, Steve Fuller, and Henk van den Belt trace the historical, social, and methodological development of commodified scientific research and achievements.
Radder is clear that this book is not merely a myriad of case studies, though, there are various investigations of particular topics which illuminate the theoretical, ethical, and sociopolitical issues within commodified research practices. For example, in Sabina Leonelli’s chapter, she explores how biological data is circulated by biologists, which has differing regulatory policies depending on the databases sponsor, be it private or public (p. 133). After moving through various cases of biological data sharing, such as a geneticist working on fruit-fly metabolism, Leonelli concludes that “the values and methodological criteria imposed by privately sponsored research has a disruptive impact on all stages of data circulation” (p. 134). Further, her assessment speaks to the greater issues within scientific endeavors, such as division of resources, commercial competition, and open science versus science as a commodity.
Beyond defining and exploring the expanse of this phenomenon, the authors of this compilation are, in one way or another, collectively engaged in: 1) critiquing the influence of capitalism on scientific endeavors and 2) suggesting alternative models and norms to conduct and appraise research. Many of the authors go about this task by working off of and reshaping sociologist Robert K. Merton’s model of autonomous science. In the early 1940s, Merton proposed four norms of science, later dubbed “Mertonian norms,” 1) communism: all scientists have collective ownership of goods; 2) universalism: validity is value-neutral; 3) disinterestedness: the institution is independent of the scientists, and 4) organized skepticism: scientific work should be put up to significant scrutiny [1]. The authors that are engaging with the Mertonian method are primarily interested in the aspect of collective good and updating this approach by considering the role that values play in scientific research, particularly as it has become deeply embedded with sociopolitical and economic dimensions.
In sum, this is an important contribution to the body of work on values in science and norms of practice, namely due to the fact that assessing ethical research practices within a capitalized system has been fairly underdeveloped. Those interested in navigating the nuances of commodified science will find this to be a useful resource to build off from. [1] Merton, R.K. (1942;1973). The Normative Structure of Science. In Merton, R. K. (ed) The Sociology of Science: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 267-278. |
Call for new Short Reads by Grads |
In an effort to build community and bring graduate students into the broader professional discussion, the PSA Newsletter is continuing our initiative called Short Reads by Grads. This is an exclusive opportunity for PSA student members.
Graduate students will have an opportunity to publish a short book review (500 words) as part of our Newsletter content. To support this initiative, we have a signup sheet for those interested in participating (https://forms.gle/vRWkfWqSxrc4hBPHA). Graduate students who agree to write the review will receive a copy of a recent book. Please contact Ramy Amin (amin@philsci.org) with questions. |
In accordance with the Philosophy of Science Association bylaws, the nomination period for the 2024 PSA election is now open. This year we will be electing the next PSA President, as well as two new PSA Governing Board members. The terms of those elected will begin on January 1, 2025.
A nomination can be made for either of these roles by any coalition of 15 full members of the society. Please email any nominations to director@philsci.org, including the names of the 15 members nominating the candidate. |
PSA24 Contributed Papers Call Now Open |
We are excited to share with you the website for PSA24! Information is limited at the moment, but we will keep updating it as the conference date draws nearer. |
PSA24 Early Bird Sponsors |
The PSA is pleased to announce its first round of PSA24 sponsors for the upcoming biennial meeting in New Orleans: Emerald Sponsors: University of California Irvine, Logic & Philosophy of Science
Platinum Sponsors: Ann Johnson Institute
Gold Sponsors: Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Philosophy Arizona State University, Centre for Biology and Society Silver Sponsors: The Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh
Our sponsors help make the PSA biennial meeting possible. Thanks to them, not only are we able to have a high quality meeting but we are also able to keep conference registration more accessible for students. If you are interested in becoming a PSA24 sponsor, please reach out to director@philsci.org. |
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Calendar of Events & Calls for Papers - Upcoming Dates |
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