Philosophy Research

Department of Philosophy

Analytic Reasoning | Ethics | Pre-Law | World Philosophy | History and Philosophy of STEM

The study of philosophy is relevant to all aspects of life and living well. We engage students in investigating the full range of perspectives from questions concerning the nature of reality, conditions of knowledge, and nuances of critical reasoning to the foundations of morality, justifications for political authority, and criteria for aesthetic evaluation.

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 Offered:

Business Ethics

Ethics of Space Exploration

Engineering Ethics
Biomedical Engineering Ethics
Ethics and Computers
Data Ethics for Professionals

Contemporary Philosophy of Law
Classical Philosophy of Law

Bioethics
Philosophy of Medicine

Selected works:

“Champlain Tower Collapse in Surfside Florida, 2021: The Canary in the Coal Mine?” (Dr. Radebaugh)
“Ford Pinto: How Sausage is Made in the Automobile Industry” (Dr. Radebaugh)
“How We Talk About Space Matters: Is It Time to Rethink Space Advocacy?” (Dr. Johnson-Schwartz)
“Ethics of Professional Judgment in Dentistry” (Dr. Castro)
“The Superstitious Lawyer's Inference” (Dr. Bondy)

History & Philosophy of STEM

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

Brian Hepburn | Specialties: Engineering Ethics, The History and Philosophy of the Physical Sciences in the 20th Century, Early Modern Philosophy. Selected works: The Creation of Rational Mechanics. The Quiet Scientific Revolution: problem solving and the eighteenth century origins of ‘Newtonian’ Mechanics. Mechanics in Newton's Wake. Euler's Galilean Philosophy of Science.

Susan G Sterrett | Specialties: Philosophy of Science, Models & Analogies in Science. Selected works: Mach on Analogy in Science. Scale Modeling. Review of The Constructive Mind: Bartlett's Psychology in Reproduction. The Genius of the Original Imitation Game Test.

JS Johnson-Schwartz | Specialties: Philosophy of Space Exploration, Environmental Ethics, Formal Logic. Selected works: Reclaiming Space: Progressive and Multicultural Visions of Space Exploration (book). The Value of Science in Space Exploration (book). Mars: Science Before Settlement. Co-organized/hosted Celebrating the Scientific Legacy of NASA and Apollo: A Symposium. Mathematical Structuralism, modal nominalism, and the coherence principle.

Susan V H Castro | Specialties: Philosophy of Medicine, Ethics of Big Data. Selected works: Medical and Algorithmic Intimacy. Healthy Humor: Philosophy of Medicine meets Humor Theory. Paradigms for Smart Farming: Chemical, Ecological, Algorithmic. A Kantian Theory of the Sensory Processing Subtype of ASD [Autism Spectrum Disorder]. Why Postulate that the Number of Unconceived Scientific Alternatives is Finite?

Robert Feleppa (Emeritus) | Specialties: Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Comparative Philosophy. Selected works: Rationality Assumptions and Their Limits. Anthropology, Development, and the Myth of Culture.

Patrick Bondy |Specialties: Epistemology, Argumentation Theory. Selected works: Argumentative courage and self-indulgence in persistent ethical and political Disagreements. Deeply Disagreeing with Myself: Synchronic Intrapersonal Deep Disagreement. Wittgenstein on Knowledge, Disagreement, Skepticism, and Relativism.

Community Outreach

The Department of Philosophy takes seriously its mission to serve the community at large. It is fortunate to have faculty members whose research and teaching address matters of interest to the general public. Philosophy faculty have been successful in outreach through various means, from presentations to professional societies, to lifelong learning classes, to talks at local museums. Highlights include:

Lifelong learning classes:
- Women in Computing (Dr. Sterrett)
- Philosophy of Humor (Dr. Castro)
- Science for Dummies: 2000 Years of Science with No Math (Dr. Hepburn)
- What is Light? Science, Art and Life (Dr. Hepburn)
Pre-Law Advising, Mentorship, Community Liaising to build professional connections (Dr. Hershfield)
Presentation to the Structural Engineering Society of Kansas and Missouri (STEAKM); public lecture on the Champlain Tower Collapse (Dr. Radebaugh)
Public lecture on space ethics at Exploration Place’s Food Truck Thursday series (Dr. Johnson-Schwartz)
"Ethics of AI" talk at Wichita Public Libraries' Advanced Learning Library (Dr. Castro)
Consulting for Discover magazine article on scientific method (Dr. Hepburn)
Mentorship to Battin-Lester Fellowship student who made a policy recommendation to the Wichita City Council on free speech in public places (Dr. Castro)
Presentations to the Unitarian Universalist Humanist Society on Buddhist meditation (Dr. Feleppa) and space and philosophy of disability (Dr. Johnson-Schwartz)
Public lecture as part of the LAS Perspectives Series on science and bias (Dr. Sterrett)
Appearances on space-themed podcasts (Dr. Johnson-Schwartz)

World Philosophy

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

Some of our World Philosophy courses:

Introduction to Japanese Philosophy
Ancient Chinese Philosophy
Contemporary Chinese Philosophy
Survey of Asian Philosophy
Latin American and LatinX Thought
Ancient Greek Philosophy
Early Modern Philosophy
Late Modern Philosophy
Analytic Philosophy

Selected works from Dr. Xiufen Lu:

"Xunzi on Moral Education and Transformation" Asian Philosophy
“The Moist Perspective on Evil” in The History of Evil in the Early Twentieth Century
“Humanity with Moral Content, the Concrete Human Dignity of Chinese Thought,” Chinese Literature and Culture

Selected works from Dr. Robert Feleppa

“Buddhism, Intuition, and Virtue,” Journal of Buddhist Philosophy
“Hakuin’s Zen: Turbulence and Insight.” Japan Studies Association Journal.
“Kant’s reply to Zeami: Sarugaku, sensus communis, and perpetual peace” (with Susan Castro), Japan Studies Association
“Zen Buddhism and Amorality” Japan Studies Association
“Gold - But to sell it you mix it with sand: Emotion and the Psychology of Chan Buddhism” Asian Studies Development Program

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

	The Analytic Reasoning Concentraton provides students with a strong grounding in logic and critical reasoning as the basis for a deeper dive into traditional analytic philosophy.
	The Ethics Concentration includes both ethical theory courses and applied courses in ethics for engineering, health care, business, and data science.
	The Pre-Law Concentration provides training in critical reasoning and argumentation, including specific courses in legal and political philosophy.
	The World Philosophy Concentration focuses on the grounds of cultural competency and its implications for living well in a globally connected world.