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Hydrogeology and Framing Questions Having Policy Consequences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Kristin Shrader-Frechette
Kristin Shrader-Frechette*
Affiliation:
University of South Florida
*
†Philosophy Department and Environmental Sciences and Policy Program, 107 CPR, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620–5550.
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Abstract

Assessing the hydrogeological modeling at the Yucca Mountain and Maxey Flats nuclear repositories reveals a number of important ways in which theory choice can go wrong. The two cases suggest that there are at least six important criteria for evaluating the suitability of scientific models to be used for predictions intended to serve public policy. More generally, the paper argues that applied philosophy of science, as practiced in environmental policymaking, requires one to employ ethical rationality as well as scientific rationality, to heed the advice of the moral philosopher, not merely that of the epistemologist or philosopher of science.

Type
Symposium: Science and Social Responsibility
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 64 , Issue S4: Supplement. Proceedings of the 1996 Biennial Meetings of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers Dec., 1997 , 1997 , pp. S149 - S160
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1997

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