Dr Peter Dennis

This course is compulsory on the MPhil/PhD in Philosophy of the Social Sciences. This course is available on the MSc in Philosophy and Public Policy, MSc in Philosophy of Science and MSc in Philosophy of the Social Sciences. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Policy makers typically take an interest in three aspects of scientific activity: agenda (What should be researched?); ethics (Which research practices should be permitted?); and dissemination (How should the results of research be made available?). We’ll investigate the extent to which policy makers should be allowed to exert influence in these areas, and what good policies might look like in each case. Topics include (inter alia) democracy and peer review; privatisation; 'useless' and 'forbidden' knowledge; clinical equipoise; science teaching in schools; and the role of public intellectuals.

10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the MT.

Students will write a 2,000 word formative essay, due in week 5 of the Michaelmas Term.

Brown, M. (2009) Science in Democracy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Dewey, J. Democracy and Education.

Kitcher, P. (2003) Science, Truth, and Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Neal, H., Smith, T., & McCormick, J. (2011) Beyond Sputnik: US Science Policy in the 21st Century. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 

Rescher, N. (1987) Forbidden Knowledge and Other Essays on the Philosophy of Cognition. Dordrecht: Springer.

Readings, TBC, from Hugh Breakey, Mark Brown, John Dewey, Heather Douglas, Benjamin Djulbegovic, Paul Feyerabend, Michael Fox, Benjamin Freedman, Joanna Kempner, Philip Kitcher, Janet Kourany, Ken Himma, Adam Moore, Robert Nozick, Robert Pennock, Alvin Plantinga, Thomas Pogge, Michael Polanyi, Peter Singer, Alexander Rosenberg, Robert Veatch, Jonathan Wolff, and John Worrall.

Exam (67%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.
Essay (33%, 2000 words) in January.