a blog about philosophy in public affairs

Author: Erin Nash

Erin is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Humanities Engaging Science and Society/Department of Philosophy at Durham University in the UK. She also hold a BSc (Hons) and a MSc (Philosophy and Public Policy). Her research interests lie at the interface of the philosophy of science and political-moral philosophy. Prior to re-entering academia she worked for government in Australia and not-for-profits in SE Asia and the UK.

Values in Science & Science in Normative Theorising

Last year, Kevin C. Elliott published three new books on ‘values in science’:

                        

Given that empirical research is often used by moral, social, and political philosophers in scholarship on questions of justice, we thought it would be interesting to chat to Kevin about his recent work and its implications for moral, social, and political philosophy.

Climate Change’s “Climate Problem”: Where are all the women?

“Climate problems” is a metaphor that has become common parlance within philosophy, where gender ratios often mirror that of math, engineering, and the physical sciences. It functions as a possible explanation for the under-representation of women and minorities, referring to what is considered to sometimes be an inhospitable professional environment for members of these demographic groups. In this post I discuss the existence of “climate issues” as they relate to one of the greatest social justice concerns of our time: anthropogenic climate change (ACC), the subject of the COP21 international negotiations in Paris this week. In particular, I look at the under-representation of women in influential, high-powered roles across various dimensions of ACC. I present the results of a preliminary survey that suggests that there is a striking lack of women in these high-profile spaces (14%), and argue that we ought to be concerned for three key reasons: the likely presence of implicit bias and stereotype threat; the epistemic benefits of women’s situated knowledge; and the disproportionate wrongs and harms women face as consequences of ACC.

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