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

非技术描述：科学哲学家分析科学知识的逻辑和概念基础（即认识论）。科学认识论阐明了科学为什么以及如何运作。理解科学的本质使哲学家和科学家能够共同努力，改进科学方法，促进科学进步，并利用科学来改善国家和世界的福利。这个EPSCoR研究奖学金将产生农业科学认识论的第一个分析。农业科学是一套跨学科的应用科学实践，将在解决21世纪紧迫的全球问题中发挥突出作用，包括气候变化带来的能源危机和粮食短缺。理解农业科学的认识论将提高科学家和决策者利用农业科学成果解决大规模社会问题的能力。 PI和一名博士后学者将收集实地数据，接受科学和价值观方面的额外培训，并加强密歇根州立大学现有的研究合作，以推进PI在农业科学认识论方面的研究。该EPSCoR研究奖学金将资助PI和博士后学者的研究驻留，以收集现场数据，接受额外的培训，并加强密歇根州立大学（MSU）的现有研究合作，以推进PI在农业科学认识论方面的研究。该奖学金由MSU哲学系，MSU社会科学哲学（SEPOS）组和MSU跨学科中心共同赞助。该奖学金的总体目标是通过加强肯塔基州大学和密歇根州立大学哲学家之间的研究伙伴关系，加快农业科学认识论的研究。这将通过两种类型的研究活动来实现：1）与赞助机构的成员合作进行哲学研究。 PI和博士后还将接受SEPOS成员在科学和价值观方面的培训，这是MSU和SEPOS广为人知的科学哲学的分支; 2）从MSU进行的农业科学活动的哲学实地考察中收集数据。PI采用实地调查方法进行研究，包括采访和跟踪实践农业科学家，以研究他们如何产生概念和理论框架。由于农业科学的本地化性质，需要多个地点的比较数据，例如肯塔基州和密歇根州。应用科学尤其是农业科学的分析创新了科学认识论对科学实践本质的理解。这推进了科学认识论的研究，特别是影响了科学分类哲学和科学与价值研究的现有研究。该奖学金将扩大科学哲学的范围，并通过收集现场数据，它还将产生一个数据集，将催化在科学认识论的额外的新奖学金。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

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.