Summer School at Utrecht University on Philosophical Perspectives on Science and Values
In July 2022, I participated in one of over 150 summer courses organised by Utrecht University (UU). It was the first time UU held a summer school on "Science and Values", which was the result of a collaboration between Philosophers of Science from UU and the Ruhr University Bochum. Around 30 participants from all over the world attended the summer school alongside me.
While the course was open to all disciplines, I found myself as the only non-philosopher in the group – definitely an experience, but a great one! Throughout the week, various scholars of the field presented inputs on different aspects of values in science, followed by great discussions and question rounds. Apart from learning and talking about more general aspects of values in science and their history, we also looked at more particular topics. Among these were the role of objectivity, the interesting case of parapsychology that developed from a recognised discipline into pseudo-science, and values in interdisciplinarity. At the end of the day, we usually divided into groups according to what interested us the most and delved deeper into the topics.
The whole week was accompanied by a rich social programme. I highly enjoyed the tour of Utrecht by one of the local philosophy professors, the excursion to Teyler’s Museum in Haarlem and the beautiful boat tour.
Make sure to have a look at Utrecht’s summer school options for next year – registrations are already open for some and they have a highly diverse offer!
(by Anne-Sophie Schaltegger – doctoral student)