[UTCP Juventus] Kei Yoshida
During summer vacation, young scholars at UTCP will introduce their research interests and works on this series of blog, UTCP Juventus, during the vacation. This time, Kei Yoshida introduces his research.
I have thus far written UTCP Juventus three times. As I did last year, I will write about what I am doing now (As to my profile and research interests, please see UTCP Juventus in 2008, 2009, and 2010 and my own website).
As to philosophy of neuroscience, I was invited to contribute an entry to an encyclopedia of philosophy to be published internationally. Although it is a short entry, I will write on neuroeconomics (N.B. [May 2013] This encyclopedia was published as Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Social Sciences, edited by Byron Kaldis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2013). Also, my neuroeconomics paper submitted to an academic journal was suggested major revision. Following referees' suggestions, I am now revising it. The suggestions are wide-ranging, and thus I have difficulty responding to them. But I hope to resubmit my paper during this summer.
As to philosophy of science, I was invited to contribute an article to a special issue of another academic journal. I will write on the relation between philosophy of science and political and social philosophy. Although I cannot explain it in detail here, re-reading the history of philosophy of science in the late 20th century, in particular, during the Cold War is one of the trends these days. It is known that philosophers of science such as Otto Neurath, Hans Reichenbach, and Karl Popper advocated communism or social democracy, and their philosophies of science were influenced by their political and social philosophies, but philosophy of science imported from Europe to the United States was depoliticized in a sense. Scholars such as George Reisch and Steve Fuller discern the influence of the Cold War on philosophy of science. In my article, I will examine these works and argue that we need to reunite philosophy of science and political and social philosophy to solve problems in science and technology. (N.B. [December 2012] This article was published as "Re-politicising philosophy of science: A continuing challenge for social epistemology" in the 25th anniversary special issue of Social Epistemology. For details, see here.)
As to philosophy of the social sciences, I do not have anything to say at the present moment. But this does not mean that I do nothing. I hope that I can report the progress of my work in the near future.
As mentioned above, I start receiving invitations from overseas. It seems that what I have done so far begins to attract some attention. I will continue working on.