News from the National Office

APA Receives Grant to Support Philosophical
Explorations of Science, Technology and Diversity

Updated 4/12/2000

As announced in a previous issue of the Proceedings, the APA has received a grant from the National Science Foundation on Philosophical Explorations of Science, Technology and Diversity. The following is a summary of the grant. Please note that there are two ways in which research will be funded, one through APA Committees and another through an open grant competition, the details of which will be announced during 2000.

The NSF has funded the APA to support and disseminate philosophical research into issues of science, technology and diversity through a dual program of commissioned research papers and small research grants.

Objectives of the Project

The aims of the APA Project on Science, Technology and Diversity are: To generate philosophical scrutiny of the increasingly urgent questions of knowledge and value posed by the ways in which science and technology encounter cultural, racial, and gender diversity in the contemporary world; and to make the results of this scrutiny available to support further research and to guide public policy.

Topics to be Addressed

The questions to which research supported under this project might be addressed range over a variety of conceptual and practical issues, issues that present primarily intellectual problems as well as issues that may directly inform public policy and private action. Among the questions at the core of the project are the following; others will emerge through the process.

Are the often-heard allegations of cultural, racial or gender bias in the practice of science and the deployment of technology justified? In accordance with what standards?

How are, for example, Asian, African, or Native American cultural perspectives challenged by the "success" of "scientific" perspectives?

Is there a masculine or Eurocentric bias in science? What is the evidence on either side of the question and how is this evidence to be evaluated?

What are the most typical cases in which issues of cultural or other "bias" surface and how do these cases illuminate the philosophical and practical questions in other cases?

How do cultural differences serve to explain differential participation in scientific and technological institutions? What can we learn from attempts, successful ones and failures, to bridge these differences?

What can we make of scientific attempts to explain and verify cultural, racial and gender differences?

Under what circumstances is it justified to place an environmental hazard in or near a minority community?

How do developments in the technology of warfare, chemical and biological weapons, relate to the interests and concerns of diverse populations?

How can the interests of distant and diverse peoples, all of whom are affected by a single technologically induced environmental change, be harmonized? What are the demands of justice in such cases? How are we to weigh the claims of sovereignty or communal autonomy?

What are the most typical cases of environmental justice issues and how can they illuminate less typical ones?

How do developments in the technology of agriculture, medicine, transportation, communication, etc., differentially affect different groups? How are we to evaluate the competing interests in further development and in the applications of new technologies?

How are we to evaluate the importance of genetic diversity in a variety of contexts, from issues of human diversity to the diversity of plants and animals?

What are the rights and duties of scientists and engineers, as well as those of politicians and other advocates of public policy, in these increasingly common situations?

Persons Responsible

The project will be handled administratively through the National Office of the American Philosophical Association. Sandra Harding, UCLA, and Robert Figueroa, Colgate University, will serve as the Research Coordinators, overseeing the research dimensions of the project. An Advisory Committee has been appointed to provide advice and technical assistance for the project.

Proposal Implementation

The APA proposes to fulfill the project objectives in two ways. First, it proposes to make funds available in the form of small grants ($500-$3000) to support worthy research projects falling within the scope of questions like those set forth above. Second, it proposes to have Committees of the Association commission research for presentation at a series of sessions to be held at divisional meetings of the APA during 2000 and 2001. The APA plans to commission 10-15 papers and to fund 10-15 research projects during the year 2001, with the actual balance between the two dependent upon the proposals submitted by APA Committees and prospective grantees. The Research Coordinators will collect the papers into an edited volume, which promises to materially advance the philosophical understanding of science, technology and diversity and to make such research more easily available.

Inquiries and Proposals can be emailed to: rfigueroa@mail.colgate.edu

Or addressed to:

Robert Figueroa, Co-Coordinator NSF/APA Grant
Department of Philosophy and Religion
Colgate University
13 Oak Drive
Hamilton, NY 13346
(315) 228-7817 voice
(315) 228-7998 fax

Deadlines for Paper/Panel Proposals:	Deadlines for Research Proposals:
Eastern Division Meeting - May 1, 2000 Pacific Division Meeting – September 1, 2000 Central Division Meeting – September 1, 2000	Summer 2000 – May 1, 2000 Summer 2001 – May 1, 2001

News from the National Office

APA Receives Grant to Support Philosophical Explorations of Science, Technology and Diversity

APA Receives Grant to Support Philosophical
Explorations of Science, Technology and Diversity