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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black">Forwarded from Dan Hicks …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black">----</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black">Julia Bursten (Univ. Kentucky) will be visiting Merced on November 3, giving a talk on agricultural science and philosophy. Please circulate the talk information below to anyone who might be interested. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black">What Kind of Thing is a Potato? </span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black">Agriculture and the Aims of Science</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black">Julia Bursten (Univ. Kentucky)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black">Friday, November 3<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black">3:30-5pm<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black">SSB 170<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black">Agricultural science is weird: it is neither a natural nor a social science, and it draws on a wide variety of “basic” sciences including physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering. Like medical
science, agricultural science aims not just to understand pieces of the world but to improve them; it is fundamentally a meliorative science. Unlike these other fields, philosophers of science have neglected agricultural science and what it reveals about the
nature of scientific knowledge. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black">In this talk I share some of early findings from interviews of farmers and agricultural scientists in Michigan and Kentucky, using the lens of potatoes. Potatoes are plants, or organs of plants;
they are a row crop; they are an economic commodity; they are food; they are biofuel; and, they are objects of significant religious, cultural, and historical value. They are a focal point for agricultural science research across soil systems, genetics and
breeding, pest and disease control, cropping procedures, and storage. Through analysis of the many ways that agricultural science studies and improves potato agriculture, I begin to sketch a vision for how agricultural science works—and what that vision reveals
about how science itself works in the 21st century.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black">Be well, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black">Dan<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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