Tuesdays at 1pm – HPS Teams Channel 3.09 ('Philosophy of Medicine Reading Group')
Organisers: Anna Alexandrova, Stephen John and Tim Lewens. Please send any questions/comments to Stephen John (sdj22).
We meet each week to discuss papers in the Philosophy of Medicine, broadly construed. We are open to students and staff in HPS and other departments. Participants are expected to read papers before the session, although normally a session leader gives a short introduction to that week's reading.
Michaelmas Term 2020: Philosophers on the pandemic
This term, our papers are around the theme of philosophical responses to the Covid-19 pandemic: this includes discussions of modelling, of evidence, and ethics. There is obviously a good reason for this focus, but also a cost, that most writing is in the form of shorter opinion pieces or blogposts, rather than fully developed articles. Therefore, a recurrent theme will be what philosophers can or should say about such rapidly moving events. We discuss this topic explicitly in Week 6.
Week 1 (13 October): Models
- Fuller, Jon 2020. 'Models v. Evidence: COVID-19 has revealed a contest between two competing philosophies of scientific knowledge. To manage the crisis, we must draw on both.' Boston Review. 5 May 2020. (See also responses by John Ioannidis and Marc Lipsitch.)
Week 2 (20 October): Facemasks: expertise, science and uncertainty
- Schliesser, Eric, and Eric Winsberg. 2020. 'Climate and Coronavirus: The Science is Not the Same.' New Statesman, March 23.
- Greenhalgh, T. (2020). 'Face coverings for the public: Laying straw men to rest.' Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, e13415.
Week 3 (27 October): Costs and benefits
- Broadbent, Alex. 2020. 'Lockdown is Wrong for Africa.' Mail and Guardian, April 8. Accessed May 14.
- Singer, Peter, and Michael Plant. 2020. 'When Will the Pandemic Cure Be Worse Than the Disease?' Project Syndicate.
Week 4 (3 November): Lockdown: the young and the old
- Savulescu, J., & Cameron, J. (2020). 'Why lockdown of the elderly is not ageist and why levelling down equality is wrong.' Journal of Medical Ethics. (See also the reply by Jonathan Hughes.)
Week 5 (10 November): Lockdown: the young and the old (again)
- John, S. (2020). 'The Ethics of Lockdown: Communication, Consequences, and the Separateness of Persons.' Online first.
Week 6 (17 November): Stay at home (philosophers)?
- Stegenga, J. (2020) 'Fast science and the philosophy of science' Daily Nous.