Epistemology and Values in Climate Science and Sustainability

Effective work on sustainability and climate change requires the incorporation of value judgments with the methods involved in scientific practice. Unfortunately, existing investigations into these questions often are exclusively focused on either the methods of data collection, modeling, and inferences studied by philosophers of science, or the value judgments investigated by environmental ethicists, but not both. This new course—co-taught by a philosopher of science and an environmental ethicist—will bring these areas of research into direct conversation. Moreover, the course will bring scientific research into conversation with the ethical and epistemological assumptions that guide, underlie, and structure it.

Collin Rice

Assistant Professor

Katie McShane

Professor