Location: Center for Philosophy of Science, Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh
The arena of science and values has grown in size and prominence in recent philosophy of science. But debates about the role of science remain fairly limited in terms of both the scope of topics discussed and the range of views expressed. The aim of this conference is to broaden the horizons of work on science and values, partly by making room for new (or new versions of older) ideas and partly by getting it to interact with other parts of philosophy.
In this spirit we invite papers which expand the boundaries of current work in the field, and/or that argue for views that are outside of the current mainstream. These include, but are limited to:
o Views bucking the trend towards value-laden science, and/or defending (new) versions of value-freedom.
o Discussions aiming to bridge work on values in science and general value theory, especially political theory, political philosophy and moral philosophy.
o Work seeking to connect literature on values in science to other core areas of philosophy of science, including confirmation, measurement and experimental practice, explanation, modeling and theory structure.
o Work drawing connections between debates over values and science and topics in epistemology including the ethics of belief and moral and pragmatic encroachment.
