Philosophy, Science, Religion: Interdisciplinary Connections

Dr. Carter specializes in epistemology, focusing on topics such as virtue epistemology, epistemic luck, relativism, knowledge-how, and social epistemology. His book, Metaepistemology and Relativism, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2016.

Professor Duncan Pritchard FRSE is a prominent philosopher and the Chancellor’s Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Irvine, as well as a professor at the University of Edinburgh. Since joining Edinburgh in 2007 as Chair in Epistemology, he has focused his research on epistemology, authoring several influential works including Epistemic Luck and Scepticism: A Very Short Introduction. He teaches a range of courses such as Intellectual Humility, Introduction to Philosophy, and Philosophy and the Sciences, including a Chinese version of his introductory course.

As a physicist working in a theological environment, I am interested in the complex relationship between science and religion. I am known, along with Steve Bramwell from University College London, as the discoverer of "spin ice," a major research area in the physics of magnetism. Since our original discovery in 1997, more than 6,000 journal articles had been published on the topic by the end of 2018. However, after this breakthrough, I also began exploring theology and broadened my interests beyond magnetism. Following my ordination as an Anglican priest and roles in university chaplaincy at Oxford and cathedral ministry in Edinburgh, I now combine my academic interests in physics and theology by leading the Science and Religion programme at Edinburgh University, offering MSc and PhD degrees. My research interests focus on the relationship between the physical sciences, especially physics, and theology, and the impact of science on modern views of the Bible, particularly regarding miracles and divine action. Currently, I am working on a book project about naturalism, the philosophical basis of the natural sciences, and how historical debates on naturalism in earth science offer a fresh perspective on miracles.

Orestis Palermos studies how philosophy can influence the engineering of emerging technologies and socio-technical systems. His research has been published in international journals of analytic philosophy, including Synthese, Erkenntnis, American Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophical Psychology, Journal of the American Philosophical Association, and Minds and Machines. He also holds an MSc in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens.