Michigan State University
Department of Philosophy
PhD, 2017
East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America
  •  1
    This chapter is an introduction to the volume on the legacy of Paul B. Thompson. It also provides an overview of each of the chapters in this volume, exploring how they critically engage with Thompson’s work. This is important for understanding his legacy, as each highlights how Thompson’s research impacts current and future work on some of the most pressing issues of our age—such as sustainability, food security, biotechnology, and the impacts of agricultural practices. Thompson made significan…Read more
  •  12
    ​​This book explores the philosophical thought and praxis of Paul B. Thompson, who planted some of the first seeds of philosophy of agriculture and whose work inspires interdisciplinary scholarship in food ethics, biotechnology, and environmental philosophy. Landmark texts such as The Spirit of the Soil, The Agrarian Vision, and From Field to Fork revealed the fertility of food systems for inspiring reflection on our relationships to technology, the land, and one another. Rooted in philosophical…Read more
  •  29
    One way to articulate the promise of interdisciplinary research is in terms of the relationship between knowledge and ignorance. Disciplinary research yields deep knowledge of a circumscribed range of issues, but remains ignorant of those issues that stretch outside its purview. Because complex problems such as climate change do not respect disciplinary boundaries, disciplinary research responses to such problems are limited and partial. Interdisciplinary research responses, by contrast, integra…Read more
  •  14
    Professionals in environmental fields engage with complex problems that involve stakeholders with different values, different forms of knowledge, and contentious decisions. There is increasing recognition of the need to train graduate students in interdisciplinary environmental science programs in these issues, which we refer to as “social ethics.” A literature review revealed topics and skills that should be included in such training, as well as potential challenges and barriers. From this revi…Read more
  •  20
    Professionals in environmental fields engage with complex problems that involve stakeholders with different values, different forms of knowledge, and contentious decisions. There is increasing recognition of the need to train graduate students in interdisciplinary environmental science programs in these issues, which we refer to as “social ethics.” A literature review revealed topics and skills that should be included in such training, as well as potential challenges and barriers. From this revi…Read more
  •  9
    Public Philosophy, Sustainability, and Environmental Problems
    In Lee McIntyre, Nancy McHugh & Ian Olasov (eds.), A Companion to Public Philosophy, Wiley. 2022.
    Environmental ethics has persistently aspired to be public philosophy. The decades between the philosophers’ crisis of conscience and present‐day activities witnessed a proliferation of professional practices that blur the boundaries between public and academic philosophy, between what environments are worthy of moral consideration and which are mere human artifacts, and between what we call philosophy versus anthropology, or educational research, or sustainability science. The authors also focu…Read more
  •  511
    The contours of sustainable systems are defined according to communities’ goals and values. As researchers shift from sustainability-in-the-abstract to sustainability-as-a-concrete-research-challenge, democratic deliberation is essential for ensuring that communities determine what systems ought to be sustained. Discourse analysis of dialogue with Michigan direct marketing farmers suggests eight sustainability values – economic efficiency, community connectedness, stewardship, justice, ecologism…Read more
  •  1
    This book explores the philosophical thought and praxis of Paul B. Thompson, who planted some of the first seeds of philosophy of agriculture and whose work inspires interdisciplinary scholarship in food ethics, biotechnology, and environmental philosophy. Landmark texts such as The Spirit of the Soil, The Agrarian Vision, and From Field to Fork revealed the fertility of food systems for inspiring reflection on our relationships to technology, the land, and one another. Rooted in philosophical t…Read more
  •  23
    Coupled Ethical-Epistemic Analysis as a Tool for Environmental Science
    Ethics, Policy and Environment 22 (3): 267-286. 2019.
    This paper presents a new model for how to jointly analyze the ethical and evidentiary dimensions of environmental science cases, with an eye toward making science more participatory and publically...
  •  17
    This book offers fresh perspectives on issues of food justice. The chapters emerged from a series of annual workshops on food justice held at Michigan State University between 2013 and 2015, which brought together a wide variety of interested people to learn from and work with each other. Food justice can be studied from such diverse perspectives as philosophy, anthropology, economics, gender and sexuality studies, geography, history, literary criticism, philosophy and sociology as well as the h…Read more
  •  35
    Out of the fog: Catalyzing integrative capacity in interdisciplinary research
    with Michael O'Rourke and Kathleen C. Weathers
    Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 56 84-94. 2016.
    Social studies of interdisciplinary science investigate how scientific collaborations approach complex challenges that require multiple disciplinary perspectives. In order for collaborators to meet these complex challenges, interdisciplinary collaborations must develop and maintain integrative capacity, understood as the ability to anticipate and weigh tradeoffs in the employment of different disciplinary approaches. Here we provide an account of how one group of interdisciplinary fog scientists…Read more
  •  746
    People Work to Sustain Systems: A Framework for Understanding Sustainability
    Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management 141 (12). 2015.
    Sustainability is commonly recognized as an important goal, but there is little agreement on what sustainability is, or what it requires. This paper looks at some common approaches to sustainability, and while acknowledging the ways in which they are useful, points out an important lacuna: that for something to be sustainable, people must be willing to work to sustain it. The paper presents a framework for thinking about and assessing sustainability which highlights people working to sustain. It…Read more
  •  20
    I want to begin by sharing an experience working alongside a team of scientists dedicated to studying coastal fog. Two years ago, experts in coastal ecology, meteorology, atmospheric chemistry, and geography recognized the need to initiate conversation between the diverse disciplines that investigate fog. Although fog had long received attention from myriad sciences, coastal fog was yet to receive the sustained investigation that these scientists believed it warranted. Coastal fog is a strong ca…Read more