Education
Ph.D., in philosophy [specialized in history and philosophy of science]; University of Maryland, May 2001
M.A. in philosophy [specialized in Ethics]; Kyoto University, 1993.
B.A. in philosophy [specialized in Ethics]; Kyoto University, 1991.
Positions
April 2022~ present Professor at the Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Japan
April 2008~ March 2022 Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Japan
April 2003~ March 2008 Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Information
Science, Nagoya University, Japan
July 2002~March 2003 Associate Professor at the School of Informatics and
Sciences, Nagoya University, Japan
October 1999 ~ July 2002 Assistant Professor at the School of Informatics and Sciences, Nagoya University, Japan
Visiting Positions
October 2003~ April 2004 Visiting Scholar, Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh
Assistantships
assistantships at University of Maryland
Fall 1997 Assistant: PHIL 250 "Philosophy of Science I"
(instructor: Frederick Suppe)
Spring 1998 Assistant: PHIL 250 "Philosophy of
Science I" (instructor: Frederick Suppe)
Fall 1998 Instructor: PHIL 250 "Philosophy of Science I"
Scholarship and financial supports
Fall 2003~Spring 2004 Overseas Research Scholarship of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Japanese Governmental Funding)
Fall 1997 ~ Spring 1999 Research Assistantship at the Committee on the History and Philosophy of Science (CHPS), University of Maryland, College Park
Fall 1995 ~ Spring 1997 Fulbright Scholarship
Honors
2013 Kakiuchi Award, from the Japan Society for Science and Technology Studies.
2006 Association Award, from the Japan Association for Philosophy of Science, for the paper "Near Triviality of Conclusive Reasons"
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Science (especially confirmation theory, scientific realism, and philosophy of social science); Epistemology (especially naturalized and socialized epistemology); Ethics (especially metaethics and utilitarianism); Applied Ethics (Bioethics, Information Ethics, Engineering Ethics, Animal Ethics, Space Ethics); Sociology of Scientific Knowledge; Critical Thinking
Areas of Competence
History of Science, Sociology of Science, Metaphysics, Logic, Sociological Theory
Publications
Dissertation
"Socialization of Epistemology: For a Better Relationship between
Epistemology and the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge"
Committee: Frederick Suppe (chair), Raymond Martin, Chris Cherniak,
George Ritzer, and Samuel Kerstein
Books
2003 Giji-Kagaku to Kagaku no Tetsugaku (Philosophy of Science and Pseudoscience). Nagoya University Press. (Japanese)
2004 Ninshikiron wo Shakaika Suru (Socializatoin of Epistemology). Nagoya University Press. (Japanese)
2005 Tetsugaku Shiko Training ( Training of Philosophical Thinking). Chikuma Shobo (Japanese)
2008 Doubutsu Kara No Rinrigaku Nyuumon (Introduction to Ethics through Animals). Nagoya University Press (Japanese)
2012 Rinrigaku Tekini Kangaeru (Thinking in terms of ethical theory). Keiso Shobo (Japanese)
2013 Manga de Manabu Dobutsu Rinri (Learning Animal Ethics through Manga), co-authored with Natsutaka. Kagaku Dojin (Japanese)
2013 Kagaku wo Kataru towa Doiu Kotoka (What Does It Mean to Speak of Science?), co-authored with Yasushi Sodo. Kawade Shobo Shinsha (Japanese)
2018 Kagaku Tetsugaku no Genryu wo Tadoru (Tracing the Origins of the Philosophy of Science). Minerva Shobo (Japanese)
Edited Books
2004 Hokoritakai Gijutusha ni Narou (Let Us Be Engineers with Pride), co-edited by Kotaro Kuroda, Kazuhisa Todayama and Tetsuji Iseda. Nagoya University Press. (Japanese)
2006 Seimeirinrigaku to Korishugi (Bioethics and Utilitarianism), co-edited by Tetsuji Iseda and Noriaki Katagi. Nakanisiya Shuppan (Japanese).
2009 Seikatsu Chi To Kagaku Chi (Life Knowledge and Scientific Knowledge) co-edited by Yumiko Nara and Tetsuji Iseda. Open University of Japan (Japanese).
2013 Kagaku Gijutsu wo Yoku Kangaeru (Thinking Critically on Science Technology and Society) co-edited by Tetsuji Iseda, Kazuhisa Todayama, Masashi Shirabe and Yuko Murakami. Nagoya University Press.
2018 Uchu Rinrigaku (Space Ethics), co-editied by Tetsuji Iseda, Nobutsugu Kanzaki and Makoto Kureha. Showa Do (Japanese)
2022 Uchu Kaihatsu wo Minnade Giron Shiyo (Let Us Discuss Space Development), co-edited by Makoto Kureha and Tetsuji Iseda. Nagoya University Press (Japanese)
Papers in Refereed Journals
In English
1999"Scientific Rationality and the 'Even Stronger Program'" in AI and Society 13 Nos. 1&2, pp.156-163.
1999 "Use-Novelty, Severity and a Systematic Neglect of Relevant Alternatives"in Philosophy of Science 66 (proceedings) pp. S403-S413.
2005 " Near Triviality of Conclusive Reasons" Annals of the Japan Association for Philosophy of Science vol. 14 no.1, pp. 1-20.
2008 "Unsettled-Domain Utilitarianism: A Revision of Hare's Two-Level Theory for Application" Tetsugaku (Philosophy) , pp. 25-38, April 2008
2008 "How Should We Foster the Professional Integrity of Engineers in Japan? A Pride-Based Approach," Science and Engineering Ethics vol. 14, 165-176, June 2008.
2015 "Bayesianism as a Set of Meta-criteria and Its Social Application" Korean Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 18(2) 35-64, JUly 2015.(PhilSci archive version)
2021 "Japanese animal ethics and whaling" Senri Ethnological Studies, (104) 331-349, March 2021.
In Japanese
1995 "Is Metaphysical Realism Defeated?" , Kagaku Tetsugaku (Philosophy of Science) (Journal of the Philosophy of Science Society, Japan) 28, 61-78.
1996 "Preference Utilitarianism and Universalizability Thesis," Bulletin of the Japan Society of British Philosophy 19, 21-34.
2001 "On the enhancement of sociological theory from an evolutionary point of view," Kagaku Tetsugaku (Philosophy of Science) (Journal of the Philosophy of Science Society, Japan) 34-2, pp.45-57.
2003 "Reliabilism without External World" (in Japanese with English abstract), Kagaku Tetsugaku (Philosophy of Science) (Journal of the Philosophy of Science Society, Japan) 36-1 pp.1-15.
2005 "Risk as a Problem of an Applied Philosophy of Science",Kagaku Tetsugaku (Philosophy of Science) (Journal of the Philosophy of Science Society, Japan) 38-2 pp.77-91.
2010 "Mode 2 science and science communication: from an epistemological point of view" Kagaku Tetsugaku (Philosophy of Science) (Journal of the Philosophy of Science Society, Japan) 43-2, 1-17.
2011 "Is a fruitful integration of STS and critical thinking education possible?" (in Japanese with English abstract), Nagoya Journal of Philosophy vol.9, 59-82.
2013 "Is Whig history unacceptable?" Nagoya Journal of Philosophy vol. 10, pp. 4-24.
2016 "How should we teach the Ford Pinto affair" Gijutsu Rinri Kenkyu (Study of Engineering Ethics) vol.13 pp.1-36.
2021 " How does a fiction make a claim with reasons?" Nagoya Journal of Philosophy vol. 15 pp.14-32.
Other papers in English
1996 "Changes in the Concept of 'Fitness' in Evolutionary Biology" , Jissentetsugaku-Kenkyu (Studien zur Praktischen Philosophie) 19.
1997 "Can Epistemology Be Social?: A Review of Recent Attempts in Social Epistemology" , PHS newsletter No.18, Department of Philosophy and History of Science, Kyoto University. available at:
http://www.bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/phisci/Newsletters/newslet_18.html
1999 "Information ethics and its methodology: wide reflective equilibrium as a form of modest foundationalism" M. Mizutani and H. NIssenbaum eds. Proceedings of the First International Workshop for Foundations of Information Ethics, pp. 54-69.
2004 "Ethics on the Internet: A Comparative Study of Japan, the United States and Singapore", co-authored with Yumiko NARA, in A. Feenberg and D. Barney eds. Community in the Digital Age: Philosophy and Practice. Rowman and Littlefield, 2004, pp.161-179.
2011 "When is diversity within a field desirable? --a social-epistemological analysis of current American sociology--" Tetsugaku Kenkyu, (Philosophical Studies ) 591, pp.1-18
2012 "How to teach research integrity without the notion: attempts in Japan" in T. Mayer and N.Steneck eds. Promoting Research Integrity in a Global Environment. World Scientific Pub. Co. January 2012, pp. 251-243.
2017 "Preface to the special section: philosophy of science in East Asia," Annals of the Japan Association for Philosophy of Science, 26 pp. 9-12.
Presentations
In English
March 1998 "Scientific Rationality and the 'Even Stronger Program'", at International Conference on Science, Technology and Society, in Kyoto, Japan.
October 1998 "Use-Novelty, Gellerlization, and Severe Tests", at the 16th Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, in Kansas City, Missouri.
March 1999 "Information ethics and its methodology: wide reflective equilibrium as a form of modest foundationalism" at the First International Workshop for Foundations of Information Ethics, Kyoto, Japan.
November 2000 "Bridging a Gap Between Naturalistic and Traditional Approaches in the Philosophy of Science", at the17th Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, in Vancouver, Canada.
December 2002 "An empirical study of Internet information ethics behaviors: comparative research between Japan, US and Singapore" (co-authored with Yumiko Nara), presented at the Third International Workshop for Foundations of Information Ethics, in Chiba, Japan.
April 2003. "Unsettled Domain Utilitarianism", presented at the 7th International Conference of the International Society for Utilitarian Studies: Utilitarianism, Human Rights, and Globalization, in Lisbon, Portugal.
October 2003 "non-individualistic internalism and its applicability to science" presented at the lunchtime colloquium at the Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh.
February 2004 "Privacy protection in the era of globalization: comments on Daniel Skubik's 'Protecting Data on the Net: Do Global Rules for MNEs Make Sense?'", presented at the Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, Cincinati, Ohio .
December 2006 "Can We Foster Professional Integrity of engineers in Japan(and in Taiwan)? " presented at 2nd International Taiwan-Japan Bilateral on Teaching and Assessing of Engineering Ethics Curriculum Conference, December 15, 2006.
February 2007 "How Should We Foster Professional Integrity of Engineers in Japan?: A Pride-Based Approach", presented at the Sixteenth Sixteenth Annual Meeting of Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, Cincinnati, Ohio, February 24, 2007.
August 2008 "When Is Diversity within a Field Desirable?: A Social-Epistemological Analysis of Current American Sociology" presented at the Joint Annual Meeting of Society for Social Studies of Science and European Association for the Study of Science and Technology, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, August 22, 2008.
November 2008 "Why Do Japanese not Take Animal Rights Seriously?: A Historical Analysis" presented at Applied Ethics: The Third International Conferece in Sapporo, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, November 23, 2008. (pp. 123-128 of the proceedings)
January 2010 "Social epistemology of mode 2 knowledge production: the case of a nature restoration project in Japan" presented at Sixth International Conference on Technology, Knolwedge and Society, Free University of Berline, January 16, 2010.
July 2010 " Applied Philosophy: a new philosophical movement in Japan?" at Korean Society for Philosophy of Science annual meeting, Kangqon National University, Korea, July 2, 2010.
July 2010 "How to Teach Research Integrity without Using the Notion: Attempts in Japan" 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity, Pan Pacific Hotel, SIngapore, July 22, 2010.
August 2010 "How to Teach Critical Thinking and STS at Once" at Annual Meeting of Society for the Social Studies of Science, University of Tokyo, August 27, 2010.
January 2011 "social reception of science: pseudoscience as an issue for philosophers and scientists" Japan-France Frontiers of Science International Conference. Harumi Grand Hotel January 21, 2011.
June 2011 "Meta-Bayesian approach to the demarcation problem" at Taiwan-Japan Workshop on Analytic Philosophy, at Academia Sinica (Taipei) June 19, 2011. (also at: East Asian Workshop on Philosophy of Science, at Hanyang University (Seoul), July 2, 2011?
July 2011 "A statistical model of vagueness based on supervaluationism" at 14th CLMPS (Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science) at University of Nancy (France)?July 26th, 2011.
April 2012 "The Future of the Japan-Korea Interaction in Philosophy of Science" At fourth annual meeting of Japan Association for Contemporary and Applied Philosophy, Chiba University, April 21, 2012
July 2012 "Teaching meta-critical thinking" presented at International Conference on Thinking 2012 at Birkbeck College, University of London, July 5th, 2012.
September 2012 "Bayesianism as the foundation for risk communication, " presented at the first Conference on contemporary philosophy in East Asia, at Academia Sinica, Taipei, on September 8, 2012.
October 2012 "introduction to the philosophy of science through pseudoscience" presented at the First IHPST Asian Regional Conference , at Seoul National University, Seoul, October 18, 2012.
November 2012 "Epistemic Diversity as a Means for Mutual Checking" Tokyo Forum for Analytic Philosophy, at University of Tokyo.
December 2012 "Epistemic diversity: mutual checking, evidential basis and a division of labor" at National Chung Cheng University
October 2013 "Collective confidence in global warming: a social Bayesian point of view" presented at The Third East Asia Conference on the Philosophy of Science, (EACPS) National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan.
January 2014 "Contextualizing the aim of science and scientific realism," Kyoto Bristol Symposium, Kyoto University.
March 2014 "comment on A Search for Mechanism" at Japan-Taiwan Philosophy and History of Biology Workshop (since I could not attend the workshop, the comment was read by Yuichi Amitani)
March 2014 "Pseudoscience as a philosophical topic" presented at NTHU-KYOTO workshop on Philosophy for Young Scholars, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan.
August 2014 "Am I happier as a teacher if my students understand my lecture?; implications of the role theory for the preference satisfaction view of human welfare" at The Thirteenth Conference of the International Society for Utilitarian Studies (ISUS XIII Yokohama), Yokohama National University, Japan.
September 2014 "How philosophy of science answers to the contemporary problems in East Asia" at the Fourth meeting of Japan-China Philosophy Forum, at Beijin Foreign Studies University.
November 2014 "Historical reconsideration of empirical adequacy as the aim of science" presented at 4th East Asia &Southeast Asia Conference in Philosophy of Science, ILIM, Malaysia.
March 2015 "What kind of measures does Kyoto University need to take in terms of research integrity? "　presented at International Workshop on Research Integrity and Clinical Ethics, Kyoto University.
August 2015 "How can Bayesians help communications on climate change?" presented at 15th Congress on Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science (CLMPS) , University of Helsinki.
August 2015 "A Bayesian look at inconsistencies in science" presented at The 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on the Philosophy of Science, Seoul National Univesity, South Korea.
October 2015 "Managing the Trading Zone Effectively: How Philosophy Can Help in Developing Interdisciplinary Pidgin," presented at EASTS (East Asian Science, Technology and Society) Conference 2015, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
September 2016 "Philosophical reflections on research integrity in the global context," presented at Research Integrity Workshop, at University of Bristol.
November 2016 "STS and Critical Thinking Education: A happy marriage," lectured at Future Humanities Forum, at Han Yang University.
July 2017 "What can species theorists learn from Parfit?" (With Yuichi Amitani), presented at International Society for History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biolology 2017 meeting, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
December 2017 "From philosophy of science to philosophy of inquiries" at the 7th Asia Pacific Conference on Philosophy of Science , at National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan.
November 2018 "Meta Bayesianism: an application of two level theory to scientific methodology" Fudan University Division of Philosophy of Science Launching Conference. Shanghai, China.
June 2019 "Possibility of redefining fabrication and falsification in humanities" presented at 6th World Conference on Research Integrity, at Hong Kong University, Hong Kong.
June 2019 "Being grateful for sacrifices of animals: Japanese animal ethics as a kind of relational ethics " presented at The 14th International Conference on Environmental Enrichment, Kyoto University.
June 2019 "Generalized Parfitian Reductionism and its Applications in Philosophy of Science" presented at 8th Asia-Pacific Conference of Philosophy of Science, Fudan University, Shanghai.
June 2019 "An Ethical 'Space Pocket' of Present Time-- An Analysis of the Difficulty in Applying the Just War Theory to Space Warfare," (with Hirotsugu Ohba ), presented at 2019 Conference of International Society for Military Ethics, at The Academy Hotel, Colorado Springs.
July 2019 "The Reproducibility Crisis as a Case Study for the Demarcation Problem" presented at Annual Conference of Korean Society for Philosophy of Science, at National Seoul University.
February 2020 "Japanese animal ethics as a kind of relational ethics" presented at Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) 2020 Annual International Conference, Sheraton Atlanta Downtown Hotel, Atlanta.
March 2023 "Pilot Study of Different Perspectives on Research Integrity Using Focus Group Interviews"(by Tatsuya Ito, Mika Suzuki, Keiko Sato, Sayaka Takenouchi, Satoshi Kodama, and Tetsuji Iseda) presented at Asia Pacific Research Integrity (APRI) 2023 Tokyo, at Waseda University.
July 2023 "Can a conspiracy theory be a legitimate alternative hypothesis?: an exercise in applied philosophy of science", Asia Pacific Philosophy of Science Association (APPSA) Biennial meeting, VinUniversity, Hanoi.