RII Track-4:NSF: The Epistemology of Agricultural Science

University Of Kentucky Research Foundation, Lexington KY

Investigators

Abstract

Non-Technical Description: Philosophers of science analyze the logical and conceptual foundations (i.e. the epistemologies) of scientific knowledge. Epistemologies of science elucidate why and how science works. Understanding the nature of science enables philosophers and scientists to work together to improve scientific methods and further scientific progress, as well as to employ science to improve the welfare of the nation and the world. This EPSCoR Research Fellowship will produce the first analysis of the epistemology of agricultural science. Agricultural science is an interdisciplinary and applied set of scientific practices that will feature prominently in solutions to urgent, global 21st-century problems, including the energy crisis and food shortages anticipated by climate change. Understanding the epistemology of agricultural science will improve the abilities of scientists and policymakers to employ the results of agricultural science to solve large-scale social problems. The PI and a postdoctoral scholar will collect field data, receive additional training members in science and values, and strengthen an existing research collaboration at Michigan State University, to advance the PI’s research on the epistemology of agricultural science. Technical Description: This EPSCoR Research Fellowship will fund a research residency for the PI and a postdoctoral scholar to collect field data, receive additional training, and strengthen an existing research collaboration at Michigan State University (MSU), in order to advance the PI’s research on the epistemology of agricultural science. The Fellowship is co-sponsored by the MSU Department of Philosophy, the MSU Socially Engaged Philosophy of Science (SEPOS) group, and the MSU Center for Interdisciplinarity. The overall objective of the Fellowship is to accelerate research in the epistemology of agricultural science by strengthening the research partnership between philosophers at the University of Kentucky and MSU. This will be accomplished via two types of research activity: 1) Collaborative philosophical research with members of the sponsoring institutes. The PI and postdoc will additionally receive training from SEPOS members in science and values, a branch of philosophy of science for which MSU and SEPOS are widely renowned; and 2) Collection of data from philosophical fieldwork on the agricultural scientific activity being conducted at MSU. The PI employs fieldwork methods to conduct research, including interviewing and shadowing practicing agricultural scientists to examine how they generate concepts and theoretical frameworks. Due to the localized nature of agricultural science, comparative data across multiple locations, e.g. Kentucky and Michigan, is required. Analysis of applied science, especially agricultural science, innovates on the way epistemology of science understands the nature of the scientific practice. This advances inquiry in the epistemology of science, particularly impacting existing research in the philosophy of scientific classification and the study of science and values. This Fellowship will expand the scope of philosophy of science, and, via the collection of field data, it will also generate a dataset that will catalyze additional new scholarship in the epistemology of science. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.