My research explores four main areas. Though some projects are confined to a single domain, much of my work stretches across two or more of these topics:
- History of economics and political economy
- The place of expertise in democratic political life
- Virtue ethics and virtue epistemology in science & technology
- Historiography, especially historical epistemology and practice theory
Current Major Projects
The Ethics of Official Facts — I’m currently finishing a book project focused on a core question about expertise and modern democracy: how can official statistics be subject to democratic oversight and control while retaining their non-partisan character and serving as a bulwark against the abuse of political power? Early parts of this work were supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
Virtues in the Practice of Science — I am lead PI for a planning grant from the Templeton Foundation on “Intellectual Humility in Scientists” that is examining the value of humility in scientific practice and how it might best be cultivated. Previously, I was co-PI for a multi-disciplinary team on Developing Virtues in the Practice of Science that examined the dispositions (cognitive, behavioral, and emotional) that are correlated with laboratory research in biology. Funded by a three-year, $3.1 million grant from the Templeton Religion Trust, this project brought together scholars from theology, psychology, anthropology, and the history & philosophy of science.
Generative AI in the Humanities — I am co-PI for a Research Collaborative sponsored by the Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good that is exploring humanistic perspectives on generative AI. My contributions are focusing on virtue ethics in relation to AI.
Beyond these major projects, I continue to work on the history of economics and political economy.
BLS tabulating pool, c. 1935. Source: Goldberg and Moye, The First Hundred Years of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (Washington, 1985).