Trusting Expertise

Heather Douglas (University of Waterloo)

Philosophy is often represented as nothing more than an abstract intellectual exercise, removed from practical concerns. This view is not only historically inaccurate but also overlooks the recent rise in applied and socially engaged philosophy, which are committed to promoting a closer relationship between theory and practice, often with the goal of contributing to the solution of social issues, e.g. justice or welfare. By highlighting and reassessing the epistemological and ethical assumptions of various social and institutional practices and decisions, a growing number of philosophers now aim at fostering a better understanding of the entanglement of theory and practice, in particular, by studying the conceptual issues in, for example, criminal justice, social welfare, health services, social work, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and environmental protection.

The 6th International Graduate Conference of the Department of Philosophy of Central European University will explore these and similar topics in socially engaged and applied philosophy. We seek contributions from graduate students addressing the following areas (suitable topics for each area need not be restricted to the examples below):

• Applied Ethics (Medical ethics, neuroethics, human enhancement, climate change, group action, and role morality);

• Political Philosophy (Prospects of philosophy's involvement in policy-making, e.g. implications of recent theories of justice for policy questions and current social issues);

• Applied Ontology/Epistemology, Philosophy of Law/Economics (Possibilities of redefining legal, economic, and philosophical concepts in the light of recent scientific advances);

• Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science (Relevance of notions such as those of situated knowledge and epistemic, political, and social injustice in philosophical reflection on knowledge, the knowing subject, and practices of inquiry and justification);

• Philosophy of Science (Issues concerning philosophers' engagement with scientists in order to understand conceptual problems arising in scientific practice; Rethinking traditional epistemic and institutional norms of scientific inquiry vis-à-vis the idea of value-laden science);

• Philosophy of Criminology/Public Policy (Use of genetic information for social ends, assumptions underlying immigration and criminal justice);

• Philosophy of Psychiatry and Cognitive Sciences (Implications for philosophical research from its dialogue with other disciplines, such as psychological and neurocognitive theories, in particular concerning ontological, epistemological, and ethical concepts operative in them);

• History of Philosophy (Relevance of past thinkers for new normative standpoints or frameworks or addressing, for instance, current environmental and social issues).