Matthew Brown

Matthew J. Brown is the Director of the Center for Values in Medicine, Science, and Technology and Associate Professor of Philosophy and History of Ideas in the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas. He is also affiliated faculty in the School of Brain and Behavioral Sciences and the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication at UT Dallas. He has published various articles primarily in the areas of values in science, science and democracy, pragmatism, history of philosophy of science, and the interpretation of quantum mechanics. He is also interested in philosophy of scientific practice, cognitive science (esp. situated and distributed cognition) and engineering and research ethics. He is currently funded by the National Science Foundation for a project on “Engineering Ethics as an Expert Guided and Socially Situated Activity.” While visiting the Center, Matt will be working on a book manuscript on values in science, tentatively entitled “Science and the Moral Imagination.” The book will examine the role of choice, values, and responsibility in scientific inquiry, and it will articulate and defend a new normative ideal for value-laden scientific practice as a constructive alternative to the ideal of science as value-free. This ideal aims to expand and transform “the responsible conduct of research” from a narrow focus on compliance to a rich focus on the moral imagination.