Philosophy of Science Term Papers

In recent decades, however, these assumptions have faced two challenges. One challenge originated with arguments for the close, even symbiotic relationship between science and technology, and as a response to the external social problems of technology, from nuclear weapons to biotechnology. In consequence, the philosophy of technology developed as a complement to the philosophy of science, with a particular focus on ethicalpolitical criticism. A second challenge originated with historical and sociological studies of science that revealed important nonepistemological features of its internal processes. Of special importance here are the ethical dimensions of scientific methods, with discussions of the professional ethics of science, and accounts of the material culture of science, where the scientific method is placed within the larger framework of scientific tools, public and private institutions, and governmental funding streams. Bridging the external social impacts of scientific activity and its internal social construction is the less well known but no less important activity of science policy. Science policies are manifest both outside science in public appropriations for the funding of science and regulatory legislation, and inside science with efforts to refine the procedures of peer review or promote the more effective and equitable sharing of data and peer review. Original recognition and analysis of these activities belongs to the social sciences, and to research undertaken by that interdisciplinary field known as science, technology, and society studies. As guest editors of this special issue of Philosophy Today, however, our goal is to promote the emergence-after the philosophy of technology and the professional ethics of science-of a third complement to traditional philosophy of science that focuses on this under-appreciated bridge. Philosophical reflection on science policy will expand our understanding of science, extend the activity of philosophy, and strengthen our grasp of the controversies facing policy professionals. To repeat: Complementing science is another, no less significant activity, that of science policy-which is itself simply one aspect of what has been called the "policy orientation" (Lerner and Lasswell, eds., 1951) and the "policy movement" (Brunner, 1991) that promotes the development of systematic, intelligent, and effective public decision making. In a distinction that goes back at least to Harvey Brooks (1968)-and which is not precisely the same as that between external and internal science policy-science policy is commonly divided into "policy for science" and "science for policy." In either case, science policy is distinct from science, in that it attempts to investigate, formulate, and implement guidelines for science-society relationships, so that society promotes the steady advancement of science (policy for science) and science benefits public decision making (science for policy). Like science itself, science policy is thus of considerable societal importance. Remarkably, however, although there exist efforts to advance science policy work itself and to examine it from the perspectives of science, technology, and society studies, there is little in the way of a research program in philosophy attempting to analyze and understand science policy more generally, either in its epistemological or its ethical dimensions. The absence of any philosophy of science policy in the philosophy of science is easily documented. Consider, for instance, two of the most representative textbook readers: E. D. Klemke, Robert Hollinger, and A. David Kline, eds., Introductory Readings in the Philosophy of Science (1988); and Martin Curd and J. A. Cover, eds. Philosophy of Science: The Central Issues (1998). Klemke et al. collects articles dealing with the demarcation problem, the covering law model of explanation, relations between theory and observation, confirmation and acceptance, and two short sections on science and values (how science rests on distinctive values) and science and culture (how science is its own way of life). The Curd and Cover book likewise includes articles on the relation between science and non-science, scientific rationality, theory and observation, induction, confirmation, explanation, laws, reductionism, and empiricism. Neither text even so much as mentions the phenomenon of science policy or the role of science in public decision making.

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