Mission Statement
History and Philosophy of Science and Technology
In the Fall of 2004, a small but dedicated group of historians, philosophers, scientists and other interested individuals began to meet monthly to discuss their on-going research in the areas of history and philosophy of science and technology.
As individuals we work in such diverse areas as cognitive science, early modern European and indigenous science and medicine, nineteenth century Germany, contemporary ethics, science in public policy, values in science, aesthetics, science and literature, and physical chemistry. In spite of the diversity of our interests we have similar backgrounds in the history and philosophy of science and have found that presenting our works in-progress is a valuable step in readying a project for publication in venues within our respective disciplines and in interdisciplinary journals. Several articles read by the group have either been published in peer-reviewed journals or are under review at such journals. We have also read chapters from book manuscripts that our members are readying for publication. Our forum has allowed us to prepare works for presentation at conferences and to help graduate students revise chapters of their dissertations either before their defense or for publication afterward.
This research group is unique, not only in that it is interdisciplinary but also in that it crosses the boundaries between science and the humanities. While the majority of the core members are in the humanities, two are not and a number of our other participants are in other scientific disciplines. Our discussions are rich because of the breadth of our collective knowledge and we look forward to including others who might find participation in such a group fruitful.
We meet once a month to read the work in progress of one of our core members and to discuss books by our invited speakers before their arrival on campus. This year we have invited renowned historian Peter Dear to visit in January and the feminist philosopher and historian Carolyn Merchant to visit in April. We will meet four times during the Fall semester and five times in the Spring. Our invited scholars will give a public talk followed by an informal reception open to the public. In May of 2008 we will have a reception for all participants in the seminar, most likely in conjunction with our final meeting of the semester, to reflect on the past semester, informally discuss our on-going projects and plan for the following year.