~ Program
Objectives ~
Since the end of the Cold War there has been an international surge of interest in American philosophy, especially in pragmatism. For two decades, there has been a growing awareness that IUPUI has become an important center for research in American thought. This is chiefly the result of the material resources and personnel associated with the Peirce Edition Project. With the addition of the Frederick Douglass and George Santayana scholarly editions, the significance of IUPUI’s resources has sharply increased. The master’s program makes use of IUPUI’s established faculty in American philosophy to deliver a course of instruction not available elsewhere. Through the work of the Peirce Edition Project IUPUI has developed a reputation as a center for the study of Charles S. Peirce. The Project is widely recognized for its scholarship in American philosophy and for the valuable resources it makes available to visiting scholars, and has been attracting visitors, including graduate students, for over twenty years. Recent international visitors include: 1. Faculty and postdocs: Ivan Mladenov (University of Salzburg, Austria); Paul Forster (Ottawa, Ontario); Giovanni Maddalena (University of Rome, Italy); Susanna Marietti (U. di Milano); Elisabeth Walther-Bense (Stuttgart, Germany); François Latraverse (UQAM Montreal); Nicholas Griffin (McMaster, Ontario); Christopher Hookway (Sheffield, UK); Helmut Pape (Hannover, Germany); Maria de Lourdes Bacha (São Paulo, Brazil); Kurysztof Skowrowski (Warsaw University of Technology, Poland); Martha Carrer Cruz Gabriel (São Paulo, Brazil); Howard Callaway (Univ. of Mainz, Germany); Christine Wertheim (London, UK); Naomi Cumming (University of Melbourne, Australia). 2. Graduate students: Justus Lentsch (Hannover, Germany); Priscila Farias (São Paulo, Brazil); João Queiroz (São Paulo, Brazil); Mercedes Defourny (Paris, France); Marc Guastavino (UQAM Montreal); Benoit Favreault (UQAM Montreal); Mathias Girel (Sorbonne, France); Jacueline Mitauy (São Paulo, Brazil); Johannes Hoeltz (Frankfurt, Germany); Antonin Vincente Garnica (UNESP, Brazil). There are connections between the apparently disparate fields of bioethics and American philosophy. Increasingly, philosophers working from the pragmatist perspective of William James, John Dewey, and Jane Addams are shedding valuable light on such issues as the determination of death, resource allocation, and health-policy decision making.
Bioethics is a rapidly growing field that requires educated and trained theorists and practitioners. IUPUI is well-placed to play a leading role in the academic training of such individuals. IUPUI is home to one of the nation’s largest health-profession complexes, one that boasts not only the nation’s second largest school of medicine and its largest multi-purpose school of nursing, but also has sizable programs in dentistry and allied health sciences. The IU School of Medicine is the only medical school in the nation’s thirteenth largest state, and is home to the state’s only residency programs in a variety of medical specialties. In June 2001, the Indiana University Center for Bioethics was established with a mandate that included the development of graduate programs. Moreover, health care is the largest employer in the state. The graduate program's focus in bioethics helps meet the need for ethically informed health care providers and patients. Such providers and patients are essential, given that the medical profession confronts such complex issues as genetic engineering, stem cell research, and the allocation of health care resources. Unlike many other medical schools, which either are unaffiliated with large universities or are distant from them, the close geographic association between the health care complex and the university fosters interdisciplinary collaboration in teaching, research, and patient care. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ Program
Features ~
IUPUI is the location of three significant, nationally recognized scholarly editing projects, two of which are in American philosophy: 1. The Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition. This edition is being prepared by a team of eight persons. Work on the edition progresses steadily but slowly, for it is complicated by the fact that much of Peirce’s work exists only in manuscript form, and these manuscripts, most of which have been stored at Harvard since 1915, are in great disarray. The Project’s work requires a massive reorganization and dating effort prior to text selection and editing. Six volumes (of a projected thirty) have been published by Indiana University Press. Plans are underway for an on-line electronic edition that will not only contain everything in the printed volumes but also supplement those volumes in various ways, principally by including digitized images of manuscripts. 2. The Works of George Santayana is a critical edition of Santayana’s published and unpublished writings. The goal of the editors is to produce texts that accurately represent Santayana’s final intentions regarding his works. Editorial judgments are based on an assessment of all available evidence manifest in Santayana’s works, letters, annotations, and other authorial material. The Works of George Santayana is published by MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The learning resources available through the editions, the specialized faculty, the visiting researchers, and the continued work on the editions, provide students with a unique, specialized environment for the study of American philosophy. The Peirce Edition Project has entered into an agreement with Université du Québec à Montréal, outsourcing part of the work of volume 7 of the Writings (Peirce’s contributions to the twelve-volume Century Dictionary). A similar agreement with Helmut Pape in Germany is being worked out for volume 23 of the Writings, which will contain Peirce’s 1903 Lowell Lectures. A “Protocol of General and Special Agreement of Friendship and Cooperation” was signed by President Myles Brand and Rector Denis Roch of the Université du Québec à Montréal in which both universities agree to establish ties for the purpose of promoting mutual understanding and academic, cultural, and personnel exchange. Both universities have agreed, specifically, to facilitate and intensify those exchanges between the partners that fall within the areas of semiotics and philosophy, with a particular emphasis on the Peirce Edition Project and the Department of Philosophy at IUPUI, and the Ph.D. program in Semiotics and the Department of Philosophy at UQAM. Collaboration includes, among other things, joint research projects, exchange of professors, exchange of students, seminars and colloquia, and joint publications. These projects have already produced an increase of students visiting IUPUI from Canada and Germany.
Several resources available to the bioethics concentration distinguish it from other M.A. programs in bioethics. These resources derive from the presence of the IU Center for Bioethics (IUCB) and the Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics (the clinical ethics unit of the IUCB). They also derive from the location of the program. The program is in the state capital, so it has convenient access both to policy makers and to numerous and sizable high-tech companies, health professions complexes, and allied health programs. It also is close to the IUPUI Medical Humanities Program, the Center on Philanthropy, and the nationally ranked Center on Law and Health. A notable feature of the program is its practicum in clinical ethics. Modeled after some of the best programs in the country, this practicum will combine both didactic classroom study and clinical experiences with physicians, nurses, genetic counselors, and other health care professionals. There are many collaborative arrangements to support the bioethics
concentration. These include arrangements between the Department of Philosophy and the
Center for Bioethics and arrangements among the Schools of Law, Nursing, and Science. One
example of such an arrangement is the development of a new program in pharmacogenomics,
ethics, and public policy being jointly carried out by the Center for Bioethics and the
Division of Clinical Pharmacology in the IU School of Medicine. Further examples include
prospective dual degrees involving the Schools of Law, Nursing, Medicine, and SPEA.
Collaborative relationships have been developed with the Poynter Center in Bloomington to
carry out interdisciplinary research in bioethics. Similar relationships are envisioned
with the Center on Philanthropy. |
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