Kathryn Plaisance (University of Waterloo), John McLevey (University of Waterloo), Alexander Graham (University of Waterloo), Janet Michaud (University of Waterloo)
Discussions among philosophers of science as to the importance of doing scientifically- and socially-engaged work seem to be increasing as of late. Yet, we currently have little-to-no empirical data on the nature of engaged work, including how common it is, the barriers philosophers face when engaging other communities, the broader impacts of philosophers’ work, nor the extent to which the discipline actually values an engaged approach. Our project seeks to address this gap in our collective knowledge. In this paper, we report the results of a survey with 299 philosophers of science about attitudes towards and experiences with engaging scientific communities, barriers to engagement, and the extent to which philosophers of science think scientifically engaged work is and should be valued by the discipline. Our findings suggest that most philosophers of science think it’s important that scientists read their work; most have tried to disseminate their work to scientific or science-related communities; and most have collaborated in a variety of ways (e.g., over half of respondents have co-authored a peer-reviewed paper with a scientist). In addition, the majority of our respondents think engaged work is undervalued by our discipline, and just over half think philosophy of science, as a discipline, has an obligation to ensure it has an impact on science and on society. Reported barriers to doing engaged work were mixed and varied substantially depending on one’s career stage. These data suggest that many philosophers of science want to engage, and are engaging, scientific and other communities, yet also believe engaged work is undervalued by others in the discipline.
