What does a philosopher of science do in a large consortium working on synthetic cell research?

With philosophers increasingly involved in large interdisciplinary research projects, their role is extended beyond classical, non-empirical and academy-oriented philosophical research. The interdisciplinary nature of Synthetic Cell (SC) research and the various goals of synthetic cell construction present a clear need for overarching concepts and practices that enable effective communication, conceptual disambiguation and interdisciplinary integration. Philosophers of science can play an important role in achieving these aims. However, how philosophers of science can embed themselves in SC research in successful and mutually beneficial way, remains under investigated. This talk will focus on the following two questions:

What is the role of the philosopher of science in SC research and how does this role change when being more integrated or embedded in a research project?

What are the practical and conceptual challenges a philosopher of science faces in such an embedded role?

Based on personal reflections, this talk will identify challenges and opportunities for the embedded philosopher of science. These challenges include the potential management of a dual role, that implies juggling both research methods and practices that are part of philosophical research and those related to contributing to SC research aims, due to e.g. potentially diverging academic networks and publishing outlets. In contrast, a more embedded role can both enrich philosophy of science by providing empirical grounding to claims relating to scientific practice and discovery within SC research and by addressing novel conceptual issues arising from SC research, such as the question of whether the synthetic cell can be called alive. In parallel, the philosopher of science can help in attaining SC research aims by using philosophical frameworks for conceptual clarification or by facilitating interdisciplinary integration. 

Part of panel: The limits and opportunities of collaboration: finding our role as SSH researchers in transdisciplinary consortia - part 2