Philosophy Research

History, Philosophy, and Ethics of STEM

Research into the history, theoretical foundations, normativity, and methods in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) is one of our great strengths as a department. Here is a very brief sketch of what we do.

Dr. Susan G Sterrett | History and Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of AI, Models & Analogies in Science

  • How Math Figures Differently in Exact Solutions, Simulations, and Physical Models
  • The meandering epistemic status of river models in American Hydraulics
  • Mach on Analogy in Science
  • Pictures, Models, and Measures in Wittgenstein
  • Scale Modeling
  • Turing on the Integration of Human and Machine Intelligence

Dr. JS Johnson-Schwartz | Philosophy of Space Exploration, Environmental Ethics, Formal Logic

  • The Value of Science in Space Exploration (monograph)
  • Space Science and Ethics
  • How we Talk About Space Matters: Is it Time to Rethink Space Advocacy?

Dr. Brian Hepburn | Engineering Ethics,The History and Philosophy of the Physical Sciencesin the 20th Century, Early Modern Philosophy

  • The Creation of Rational Mechanics
  • The Quiet Scientific Revolution: problem solving and the eighteenth centuryorigins of ‘Newtonian’ Mechanics
  • Mechanics in Newton's Wake: Euler's Galilean Philosophy of Science
  • Scientific Method
  • Equilibrium, natural motion, and models of explanation

Dr. Susan VH Castro | Philosophy of Medicine, Cyberethics and Ethics of AI, Humor

  • Algorithmic Humor
  • Healthy Humor: Philosophy of Medicine meets Humor Theory
  • Paradigms for Smart Farming: Chemical, Ecological, Algorithmic
  • A Kantian Theory of the Sensory Processing Subtype of Autism
  • Why Postulate that the Number of Unconceived Scientific Alternatives is Finite?

Philosophy Department

 

Epistemology, Disagreement, and Love

Dr. Patrick Bondy | Epistemology, reasons, disagreement

  • Epistemology’s Prime Evils

This papers identifies three related kinds of skeptical challenges to the possibility or the reality of human knowledge. These challenges all proceed by describing possible scenarios in which a powerful and deceptive entity, a philosophical demon, does its best to deceive its victims about some or all of the things that they think they know. The difficulty of ruling out the existence of this kind of deception poses a challenge to our claim to have knowledge of the world around us. What I call the "Prime Evils" are three philosophical demons that pose the most serious challenges to the possibility of knowledge. The paper describes a way to understand knowledge and justified belief that I think handles these demons well enough.

  • Deeply Disagreeing with Myself: Synchronic Intrapersonal Deep Disagreement

Deep disagreements are normally deep-seated disagreements, that bottom out in conflicting fundamental frameworks for thinking about and acting in the world. Such disagreements are notoriously difficult to rationally resolve; and they are generally conceived as taking place between different people. This paper argues that deep disagreements with oneself are also possible; and that some resources for dealing with interpersonal deep disagreements might be applicable in the intrapersonal cases, too.

  • The Epistemic Norm of Inference and Non-Epistemic Reasons for Belief

Some philosophers hold that only evidence (epistemic reasons) can count as a reason for holding a belief; others hold that practical considerations (non-epistemic reasons) can also be reasons for holding beliefs. For those who hold that there are non-epistemic reasons for belief, a puzzle arises: it seems that any good reason for belief should be able to be used as a premise in an argument for that belief; but non-epistemic reasons for a belief are clearly not good premises to use in an argument for that belief. This paper addresses this challenge, defending the existence of non-epistemic reasons for belief, and proposing a different understanding of the kind of argument in which non-epistemic reasons for belief appear.

Dr. Jeffrey Hershfield | Philosophy of Sex and Love, Philosophy of Language, Analytic Philosophy

  • Declaration and Bestowal: A Love Story

Irving Singer has defended the thesis that the "fine gold thread" of love, its sine qua non, is the bestowal of value by the lover on the beloved, even in those cases where the love itself is grounded in a positive appraisal of the beloved's attributes. He suggests that bestowal is a matter of elevating the importance of the beloved and his or her needs and interests above their appraised merit. I argue that love's bestowal is principally effected through speech acts of the kind that John Searle refers to as _Status Function Declarations_, the very same linguistic mechanism by which, according to him, all of social or institutional reality is created. On this picture, the roles of lover and beloved are shown to be status functions constituted by a deontology that delineates the partiality of the former towards the latter.

World Philosophy, Inclusive Philosophy

Much of our teaching and scholarship engages with non-Western philosophical topics and perspectives, including Asian, indigenous, LatinX, and African philosophy and global issues.

Dr. Xiufen Lu | Chinese Philosophy, political philosophy, philosophy of religion

  • The Evolution of Li Dazhao’s Chinese Nationalism
  • Xunzi on Moral Education and Transformation
  • The Maoist Perspective on Evil
  • Humanity with Moral Content, the Concrete Human Dignityof Chinese Thought

Dr. JS Johnson-Schwartz | Philosophy of Space Exploration, Environmental Ethics, Formal Logic

  • Reclaiming Space: Progressive andMulticultural Visions of SpaceExploration, co-edited anthologyfeaturing contributors from sixcontinents.
  • Justice in Space: Demanding PoliticalPhilosophy for Demanding Environments
globe held up by hands

 

Ethics and Epistemology for Professionals

The Department of Philosophy provides a bridge between academic and professional ethics and the real world of employment. With a special emphasis on real-world situations, our course offerings cover essential frameworks for professionals who must make difficult decisions with ethical implications over the courses of their careers.

Courses Currently Offered                             

Business Ethics
Engineering Ethics
Ethics of Space Exploration
Ethics and Computers
Data Ethics for Professionals
Classic Philosophy of Law
Contemporary Philosophy of Law
Bioethics
Biomedical Engineering Ethics

 Selected CME and other Continuing Education:

  • How We Talk About Space Matters: Is It Time to Rethink Space Advocacy? (Schwartz)
  • Ethics of Professional Judgment in Dentistry(Castro)
  • Acting like a Double-Agent (aka Fundraiser)without becoming Two-Faced (Castro)
  • The Superstitious Lawyer's Inference (Bondy)
rocket

Community Outreach

The Department of Philosophy takes seriously its mission to be an educational and cultural driver for the community at large. Here are a few highlights:

  • Lifelong learning classes for seniors 65+
    • Women in Computing (Sterrett)
    • Philosophy of Humor (Castro)
    • What is Light? Art, Science and Life (Hepburn)
    • Science for Dummies: 2000 years of Science without Math(Hepburn)
    • How to Know You Know (Hepburn)
    • Ethics of Big Data and AI (Castro)
  • Lectures, appearances, consultations
    • Scientific Method, consultant for Discover Magazine(Hepburn)
    • AI: Misconceptions, Limitations, Concerns, Humanist Society(Sterrett)
    • Ethics of AI, Wichita Advanced Learning Library (Castro)
    • Space Exploration: Flash Forward, The Space Show,Here WeAre,Planetary
    • Radio, Exploration Place’s Food TruckThursday, Humanist Society (Schwartz)
  • Pre-Law Advising, Mentorship, and Community Liaising to build professional
  • connections (Hershfield)

 

Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy concentrations

For our students, the Philosophy Department currently offers four stackable concentrations that help students develop high demand skill sets.

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