Justin B. Biddle
Associate Professor, Director of Philosophy Minor
- Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy
Overview
Justin B. Biddle is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research interests are interdisciplinary in nature, drawing on fields such as philosophy of science, technology, and medicine; ethics of emerging technologies, and science and technology policy. Conceptually, his research explores the relationships between three sets of issues: (1) the role of values in science, technology, and medicine; (2) the epistemic implications of the social organization of research, and (3) ethics and policy. He is currently exploring these relationships in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. He has also worked in the areas of biomedical research and agricultural biotechnology. He received a MA and PhD in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Notre Dame and was later a Distinguished Fellow at the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study. Prior to arriving at Georgia Tech, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Philosophy at Bielefeld University in Germany.
- M.A. and Ph.D., University of Notre Dame, History and Philosophy of Science
- B.A., University of Dayton, Philosophy
- B.S., University of Dayton, Physics
Distinctions:
- Distinguished Fellow at the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study (Spring 2014)
Interests
- Digital Media
- Ethics and Philosophy of Science and Technology
- History of Technology/Engineering and Society
- Science and Technology Studies
- Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy
- Studies Abroad
- Wicked Problems
- Gender
- Health
- Inequality and Social Justice
- Race/Ethnicity
- Bioethics, Bioscience, Biotechnology
- Emerging Technologies - Innovation
- Ethical Practices in Contemporary Contexts
- Framing
- Human/Machine Interaction
- Inequality and Poverty
- Inequality, Inequity, and Social Justice
- Innovation
- Perspectives on technology
- Philosophy
- Privacy
- Problem-Based Learning
- Science and Technology
- Surveillance
- Sustainability
- Technology
- Technology and Innovation
- Technology Management and Policy
- Uncertainty and Decision Making
- Wicked Problems
Courses
- PHIL-2010: Intro Philosophy
- PHIL-3103: Modern Philosophy
- PHIL-3113: Logic& Critical Thinking
- PHIL-3115: Philosophy of Science
- PHIL-3127: Sci, Tech & Human Values
- PHIL-3140: Philosophy of Food
- PHIL-4699: Undergraduate Research
- PHIL-4803: Special Topics
- PST-3103: Modern Phil
- PST-3115: Philosophy of Science
- PST-4174: Perspectives-Sci & Tech
- PST-4803: Special Topics
- PUBP-4803: Special Topics
- PUBP-6010: Ethic,Epistem&Public Pol
- PUBP-8803: Special Topics in S&T Policy
Publications
Recent Publications
Journal Articles
- AI Ethics in the Public, Private, and NGO Sectors: A Review of a Global Document Collection
In: IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2021
- On Predicting Recidivism: Epistemic Risk, Tradeoffs, and Values in Machine Learning
In: Canadian Journal of Philosophy
Date: July 2020
Conferences
- Artificial Intelligence and Racial (In)Justice
Date: March 2021
- LEAP in Action: Using Adapted VALUE Rubrics in the Intentional Design of a Pilot Course on ‘Thinking’
Date: March 2020
Working Papers
- Applications and Societal Implications of Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing: A Systematic Review
In: arXiv
Date: July 2023
This paper undertakes a systematic review of relevant extant literature to consider the potential societal implications of the growth of AI in manufacturing. We analyze the extensive range of AI applications in this domain, such as interfirm logistics coordination, firm procurement management, predictive maintenance, and shop-floor monitoring and control of processes, machinery, and workers. Additionally, we explore the uncertain societal implications of industrial AI, including its impact on the workforce, job upskilling and deskilling, cybersecurity vulnerability, and environmental consequences. After building a typology of AI applications in manufacturing, we highlight the diverse possibilities for AI's implementation at different scales and application types. We discuss the importance of considering AI's implications both for individual firms and for society at large, encompassing economic prosperity, equity, environmental health, and community safety and security. The study finds that there is a predominantly optimistic outlook in prior literature regarding AI's impact on firms, but that there is substantial debate and contention about adverse effects and the nature of AI's societal implications. The paper draws analogies to historical cases and other examples to provide a contextual perspective on potential societal effects of industrial AI. Ultimately, beneficial integration of AI in manufacturing will depend on the choices and priorities of various stakeholders, including firms and their managers and owners, technology developers, civil society organizations, and governments. A broad and balanced awareness of opportunities and risks among stakeholders is vital not only for successful and safe technical implementation but also to construct a socially beneficial and sustainable future for manufacturing in the age of AI.
All Publications
Journal Articles
- AI Ethics in the Public, Private, and NGO Sectors: A Review of a Global Document Collection
In: IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2021
- On Predicting Recidivism: Epistemic Risk, Tradeoffs, and Values in Machine Learning
In: Canadian Journal of Philosophy
Date: July 2020
- Epistemic Risks in Cancer Screening: Implications for Ethics and Policy
In: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Date: February 2020
- Antiscience Zealotry’? Values, Epistemic Risk, and the GMO Debate
In: Philosophy of Science
Date: 2018
- Inductive risk, epistemic risk, and overdiagnosis of disease
In: Perspectives on Science [Peer Reviewed]
Date: March 2016
© 2016 by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Recent philosophers of science have not only revived the classical argument from inductive risk but extended it. I argue that some of the purported extensions do not fit cleanly within the schema of the original argument, and I discuss the problem of overdiagnosis of disease due to expanded disease definitions in order to show that there are some risks in the research process that are important and that very clearly fall outside of the domain of inductive risk. Finally, I introduce the notion of epistemic risk in order to characterize such risks. - Review of P. Gøtzsche, "Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How Big Pharma has Corrupted Healthcare"
In: Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal
Date: 2016
- Climate skepticism and the manufacture of doubt: can dissent in science be epistemically detrimental?
In: European Journal for Philosophy of Science [Peer Reviewed]
Date: October 2015
© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.The aim of this paper is to address the neglected but important problem of differentiating between epistemically beneficial and epistemically detrimental dissent. By “dissent,” we refer to the act of objecting to a particular conclusion, especially one that is widely held. While dissent in science can clearly be beneficial, there might be some instances of dissent that not only fail to contribute to scientific progress, but actually impede it. Potential examples of this include the tobacco industry’s funding of studies that questioned the link between smoking and lung cancer, and the attempt by the petroleum industry and other groups to cast doubt upon the conclusion that human consumption of fossil fuels contributes to global climate change. The problem of distinguishing between good and bad dissent is important because of the growing tendency of some stakeholders to attempt to delay political action by ’manufacturing doubt’ (Oreskes & Conway 2010). Our discussion in this paper focuses on climate science. This field, in our view, is rife with instances of bad dissent. On the basis of our discussion of climate science, we articulate a set of sufficient conditions for epistemically problematic dissent in general, which we call “the inductive risk account of epistemically detrimental dissent.” - Can patents prohibit research? On the social epistemology of patenting and licensing in science
In: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A [Peer Reviewed]
Date: March 2014
A topic of growing importance within philosophy of science is the epistemic implications of the organization of research. This paper identifies a promising approach to social epistemology-nonideal systems design-and uses it to examine one important aspect of the organization of research, namely the system of patenting and licensing and its role in structuring the production and dissemination of knowledge. The primary justification of patenting in science and technology is consequentialist in nature. Patenting should incentivize research and thereby promote the development of knowledge, which in turn facilitates social progress. Some have disputed this argument, maintaining that patenting actually inhibits knowledge production. In this paper, I make a stronger argument; in some areas of research in the US-in particular, research on GM seeds-patents and patent licenses can be, and are in fact being, used to prohibit some research. I discuss three potential solutions to this problem: voluntary agreements, eliminating patents, and a research exemption. I argue against eliminating patents, and I show that while voluntary agreements and a research exemption could be helpful, they do not sufficiently address the problems of access that are discussed here. More extensive changes in the organization of research are necessary. © 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. - Can Patents Prohibit Research? On the Social Epistemology of Patenting and Licensing in Science
Date: 2014
- New frontiers in the philosophy of intellectual property
In: Journal of Responsible Innovation
Date: 2014
- Institutionalizing dissent: A proposal for an adversarial system of pharmaceutical research
In: Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal [Peer Reviewed]
Date: December 2013
There are serious problems with the way in which pharmaceutical research is currently practiced, many of which can be traced to the influence of commercial interests on research. One of the most significant is inadequate dissent, or organized skepticism. In order to ameliorate this problem, I develop a proposal that I call the "Adversarial Proceedings for the Evaluation of Pharmaceuticals," to be instituted within a regulatory agency such as the Food and Drug Administration for the evaluation of controversial new drugs and controversial drugs already in the market. This proposal is an organizational one based upon the "science court" proposal by Arthur Kantrowitz in the 1960s and 1970s. The primary benefit of this system is its ability to institutionalize dissent, thereby ensuring that one set of interests does not dominate all others. © 2013 by The Johns Hopkins University Press. - State of the field: Transient underdetermination and values in science
In: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A [Peer Reviewed]
Date: March 2013
This paper examines the state of the field of " science and values" -particularly regarding the implications of the thesis of transient underdetermination for the ideal of value-free science, or what I call the " ideal of epistemic purity." I do this by discussing some of the main arguments in the literature, both for and against the ideal. I examine a preliminary argument from transient underdetermination against the ideal of epistemic purity, and I discuss two different formulations of an objection to this argument-an objection that requires the strict separation of the epistemic from the practical. A secondary aim of the paper is to suggest some future directions for the field, one of which is to replace the vocabulary of values that is often employed in the literature with a more precise one. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. - Institutionalizing Dissent: A Proposal for an Adversarial System of Pharmaceutical Research
Date: 2013
- State of the Field: Transient Underdetermination and Values in Science
Date: 2013
- Tragedy of the anticommons? Intellectual property and the sharing of scientific information
In: Philosophy of Science [Peer Reviewed]
Date: December 2012
Many philosophers argue that the emphasis on commercializing scientific research-and particularly on patenting the results of research-is both epistemically and socially detrimental, in part because it inhibits the flow of information. One of the most important of these criticisms is the "tragedy of the anticommons" thesis. Some have attempted to test this thesis empirically, and many have argued that these empirical tests effectively falsify the thesis. I argue that they neither falsify nor disconfirm the thesis because they do not actually test it. Additionally, I argue that there is other evidence that actually supports the thesis. © 2012 by the Philosophy of Science Association. All rights reserved. - Tragedy of the Anticommons? Intellectual Property and the Sharing of Scientific Information
Date: 2012
- Putting pragmatism to work in the Cold War: Science, technology, and politics in the writings of James B. Conant
In: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A [Peer Reviewed]
Date: December 2011
This paper examines James Conant's pragmatic theory of science-a theory that has been neglected by most commentators on the history of 20 th-century philosophy of science-and it argues that this theory occupied an important place in Conant's strategic thinking about the Cold War. Conant drew upon his wartime science policy work, the history of science, and Quine's epistemological holism to argue that there is no strict distinction between science and technology, that there is no such thing as " the scientific method," and that theories are better interpreted as policies rather than creeds. An important consequence that he drew from these arguments is that science is both a thoroughly value-laden, and an intrinsically social, enterprise. These results led him to develop novel proposals for reorganizing scientific and technological research-proposals that he believed could help to win the Cold War. Interestingly, the Cold War had a different impact upon Conant's thinking than it did upon many other theorists of science in postwar America. Instead of leading him to " the icy slopes of logic," it led him to develop a socially- and politically-engaged theory that was explicitly in the service of the American Cold War effort. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. - Putting Pragmatism to Work in the Cold War: Science, Technology, and Politics in the Writings of James B. Conant
Date: 2011
- Advocates or unencumbered selves? On the role of Mill's political liberalism in Longino's contextual empiricism
In: Philosophy of Science [Peer Reviewed]
Date: December 2010
Helen Longino's "contextual empiricism" is one of the most sophisticated recent attempts to defend a social theory of science. On this view, objectivity and epistemic acceptability require that research be produced within communities that approximate a Millian marketplace of ideas. I argue, however, that Longino's embedding of her epistemology within the framework of Mill's political liberalism implies a conception of individual epistemic agents that is incompatible with her view that scientific knowledge is necessarily social, and I begin to articulate an alternative conception that is better suited to a truly social theory of science. - The Responsible Scientist: A Philosophical Inquiry
In: Isis
Date: December 2010
- Advocates or Unencumbered Selves? On the Role of Mill’s Political Liberalism in Longino’s Contextual Empiricism
Date: 2009
- Lessons from the Vioxx Debacle: What the Privatization of Science Can Teach Us about Social Epistemology
Date: 2007
- Lessons from the Vioxx Debacle: What the Privatization of Science Can Teach Us About Social Epistemology
In: Social Epistemology [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2007
- Epistemic Corruption and Manufactured Doubt: The Case of Climate Science
In: Public Affairs Quarterly [Peer Reviewed]
- Genetically Engineered Crops and Responsible Innovation
In: Journal of Responsible Innovation [Peer Reviewed]
- Intellectual Property Rights and Global Climate Change: A Dilemma
In: Ethics, Policy & Environment [Peer Reviewed]
- What’s Wrong with Climate Skepticism? Examining the Inductive Risk Account of Bad Dissent
Chapters
- The Geography of Epistemic Risk
In: Exploring Inductive Risk: Case Studies of Values in Science [Peer Reviewed]
Date: July 2017
- Intellectual Property in the Biomedical Sciences
Date: 2015
- Tragedy of the Anticommons
Date: 2015
- Values in Science
Date: 2015
- Bringing the Marketplace into Science: On the Neoliberal Defense of the Commercialization of Scientific Research
Date: 2011
- Bringing the Marketplace into Science: On the Neoliberal Defense of the Commercialization of Scientific Research.
Date: 2011
- Value Judgements and the Estimation of Uncertainty in Climate Modeling
Date: 2010
- Value Judgements and the Estimation of Uncertainty in Climate Modeling
Date: 2010
Conferences
- Artificial Intelligence and Racial (In)Justice
Date: March 2021
- LEAP in Action: Using Adapted VALUE Rubrics in the Intentional Design of a Pilot Course on ‘Thinking’
Date: March 2020
- Unbiased Algorithms in a Biased Society? Epistemic Risk and Value Judgments in the Design of Recidivism-Prediction Tools.
Date: March 2020
- Artificial Intelligence and Racial Injustice: A Case Study on Algorithms in Criminal Sentencing
Date: February 2020
- Unbiased Algorithms in a Biased Society? Epistemic Risk and Value Judgments in the Design of Recidivism-Prediction Tools
Date: February 2020
- What’s Next for AI Ethics, Policy, and Governance? A Global Overview
Date: February 2020
- Epistemic Risks in Prostate Cancer Screening: Implications for Ethics and Policy
Date: 2018
- Is Criticism of Biotechnology ‘Antiscientific’? Science, Values and the GMO Debate
Date: 2017
- Advocates or Unencumbered Selves? On the Role of Mill’s Political Liberalism in Longino’s Sociopragmatism
- Collective Responsibility for Harm: On the Principle of Nonmaleficence
- Does Commercialization Inhibit the Sharing of Information?
- GM Foods and Adaptation to Climate Change
- Inductive Risk, Epistemic Risk, and Overdiagnosis of Disease
- Intellectual Property and the Public Benefits of Biomedical Research
- Intellectual Property and the Sharing of Scientific Information
- Intellectual Property and the Sharing of Scientific Information
- Intellectual Property Rights and Global Climate Change: An Ethical/Epistemological Dilemma
- Knowledge, Ignorance, and Intellectual Property Rights: The Case of GM Seeds
- Knowledge, Ignorance, and Intellectual Property Rights: The Case of GM Seeds
- Knowledge, Ignorance, and Intellectual Property Rights: The Case of GM Seeds
- Naturalism, Values, and the Social Organization of Research
- Nonmaleficence and the Privatization of Biomedical Research
- On Privatizing Science: Is Vioxx a Sign of Things to Come?
- On the Ambiguously Social Character of Longino’s Theory of Science
- Organisational Perspectives on Nonmaleficence: Clinical Practice Guidelines and Conflicts of Interest
- Science is not a quest for certainty: On James B. Conant’s Pragmatic Theory of Science
- Science is not a quest for certainty: On James B. Conant’s Pragmatic Theory of Science
- The Epistemic Significance of the Institutional Context of Science: The Case of Vioxx
- Transient Underdetermination and Values in Science
- Transient Underdetermination and Values in Science
- Transient Underdetermination and Values in Science
- Why Transient Underdetermination Matters: Values and Social Organization in Kitcher’s Science, Truth, and Democracy
Working Papers
- Applications and Societal Implications of Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing: A Systematic Review
In: arXiv
Date: July 2023
This paper undertakes a systematic review of relevant extant literature to consider the potential societal implications of the growth of AI in manufacturing. We analyze the extensive range of AI applications in this domain, such as interfirm logistics coordination, firm procurement management, predictive maintenance, and shop-floor monitoring and control of processes, machinery, and workers. Additionally, we explore the uncertain societal implications of industrial AI, including its impact on the workforce, job upskilling and deskilling, cybersecurity vulnerability, and environmental consequences. After building a typology of AI applications in manufacturing, we highlight the diverse possibilities for AI's implementation at different scales and application types. We discuss the importance of considering AI's implications both for individual firms and for society at large, encompassing economic prosperity, equity, environmental health, and community safety and security. The study finds that there is a predominantly optimistic outlook in prior literature regarding AI's impact on firms, but that there is substantial debate and contention about adverse effects and the nature of AI's societal implications. The paper draws analogies to historical cases and other examples to provide a contextual perspective on potential societal effects of industrial AI. Ultimately, beneficial integration of AI in manufacturing will depend on the choices and priorities of various stakeholders, including firms and their managers and owners, technology developers, civil society organizations, and governments. A broad and balanced awareness of opportunities and risks among stakeholders is vital not only for successful and safe technical implementation but also to construct a socially beneficial and sustainable future for manufacturing in the age of AI.
- Adversarial Systems and the Privatization of Biomedical Research: An Epistemic Evaluation
Date: 2008
Other Publications
- Sociology and Philosophy of Science John Forge. The Responsible Scientist: A Philosophical Inquiry. x+ 272 pp., bibl., index. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008. $39.95 (cloth).
Date: 2010
- Review of A. Lever, ed., New Frontiers in the Philosophy of Intellectual Property