Workshop on Scientific Imperialism

The recent research and emerging debate on “scientific imperialism” (see e.g. International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 3/2013) are putting the topic on the agenda of philosophy of science. One goal is to understand interdisciplinary relations emerging from the incursion of one scientific discipline into one or more other disciplines, such as when the conventions and procedures of one discipline or field are imposed on other fields, or more weakly when a scientific discipline seeks to explain phenomena that are traditionally considered proper of another discipline’s domain. The possibility of distinguishing imperialistic from non-imperialistic interactions between disciplines and research fields is among the issues to be addressed.

The workshop brings together philosophers of science and science studies scholars interested in issues of scientific imperialism and wishing to contribute to its conceptual clarification, empirical identification and examination, as well as its normative assessment. We welcome abstracts for papers that deal with scientific imperialism in general as well as with actual cases of imperialism that involve particular disciplines (such as economics, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, anthropology, physics, and more). Papers will be selected so as to ensure the representation of different disciplinary traditions and methodological approaches in the programme. An edited publication (special issue of a journal or a book) will be considered.

Keynote Speakers
Stephen Downes (University of Utah) “Is the Appeal to Evolution in Explanations of Human Behavior a Case of Scientific Imperialism?”
Steven Medema (University of Colorado, Denver) “Negotiating Economic Analysis of Law: Economists, Lawyers, and the Coase Theorem”

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Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences [TINT]: