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Making USGS information effective in the electronic age, USGS Open-File Report 03-240

APPENDIX III - Philosophy of Earth Science

Presentation: Robert Frodeman - Challenge of Skill


History is the medium of thinking

Maurice Merleau-Ponty
(1904-1961)

OVERHEAD 1

Science in the Public Interest:
The USGS in the 21st Century

A Philosophy Of the Earth Sciences:

Two Modalities, Internal and External

1. "Epistemology": questions internal to the discipline itself

  • The peculiar methodology of science in the field
  • The decline of fieldwork & the rise of "cybergeology"
  • The shift from geology to Earth Sciences

2. "Politics": questions concerning the place of the Earth Sciences in culture

  • As handmaiden to industrial development
  • The cultural implications of fossils and deep time
  • The narrative nature of the science
  • As paradigmatic example of public science

OVERHEAD 2

Science in the Public Interest:
The USGS in the 21st Century

Toward a Political Theory/Philosophy of Public Science

  • What are the peculiar roles and responsibilities of a public science agency?
  • How do these roles and responsibilities differ from other scientific institutions, and from public agencies?
  • To what degree should a public science agency be focused on creating new science, versus creating the context for understanding for the science we already have?
  • What types of skills are needed for creating "contexts for understanding"?

OVERHEAD 3

Science in the Public Interest:
The USGS in the 21st Century

Congressional Questions to Public Science:

1. What is the relevance of studies in paleontology, hydrology, or oceanography?

2. What is unique about public science? Why have a public science agency, when private companies could more efficiently handle those aspects of research that were relevant? If the information is truly useful, there will be a market for the information.

3. Objectivity: Are scientists promoting their own values under the guise of disinterested science?


OVERHEAD 4

Science in the Public Interest:
The USGS in the 21st Century

Claims:

1. To do "public science" requires that we think epistemology and politics equi?primordially.

2. The USGS - or another agency like it ? can become a central organ of government, playing central role in society ? if it can adapt to a changing cultural environment.

3. "Wide interdisciplinarity" as the means for this cultural transformation: a horizontal and vertical interdisciplinarity involving a) the humanities and social sciences with physical sciences; and b) stakeholders and community groups.


OVERHEAD 5

Skip past index at bottom of page
Title Page / Summary / Introduction / Goals / Overview /  Outcome

Appendices:  I. Agenda /  II. Vision / III. Earth Science / IV. Communication / V. CORDlink
                       VI. MRIB /  VII. CMGP Homepage / VII. Brainstorming / IX. Participants

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