Dr. Liam Kofi Bright

This course is available on the MSc in Philosophy and Public Policy, MSc in Philosophy of Economics and the Social Sciences and MSc in Philosophy of Science. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

The course will explore how scientific reasoning does and should inform policy making in a democracy. In the first part of the course we will examine how it is that ethical or political preferences come to influence scientific reasoning in light of its democratic role. In the second part of the course we will explore the sort of evidence policy makers might be especially interested in acquiring and the difficultives involved in producing such.

10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the AT.

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the AT.

Christensen, D. (2014). “Disagreement and Public Controversy” in Lackey, J. (ed.) Essays in Collective Epistemology. Oxford University Press.

Douglas, H. (2009). Science, Policy, and the Value Free Ideal. University of Pittsburgh Press.

Hardwig, J. (1985). Epistemic Dependence. The Journal of Philosophy.

Schenwar, M. & Law, V. (2021). Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms. New Press.

Thoma, J. (2022). Weighing the Costs and Benefits of Public Policy: On the Dangers of Single Metric Accounting. LSE Public Policy Review.

Essay (100%, 2000 words) in January.

Part of the assessment of the final essay will be discussing how they have responded to feedback on the formative.