When the data cannot speak clearly: Covid-19 and minoritised groups

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• Michael Diamond-Hunter (Department of History and Philosophy of Science)
• Wednesday 31 January 2024, 13:00-14:30
• Seminar Room 2, Department of History and Philosophy of Science.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Neil Dewar.

The ramifications of Covid-19 on vulnerable populations across the globe continues to be documented. With respect to diverse, socially-salient populations, however, the efforts to do so are fragmented. This is due to a number of reasons – metaphysical commitments regarding socially-salient concepts; methodological and ethical considerations for capturing information regarding minoritised groups and their members; and epistemological concerns regarding the quality and inter-translatability of the evidence gained (and the schema used) for categorisation of these groups. How, exactly, should we proceed with attempting to deal with understanding and mitigating racialised population disparities due to Covid-19 when both the methodology and conceptual underpinnings are lacklustre at best? In this paper, I will outline an approach for dealing with the aforementioned multiple concerns, and will utilise the UK as a case-study for proof of concept. I will offer a solution to the issue that relies on an instrumentalist understanding of race, which provides a number of positives in comparison to other contemporary ontological accounts. Finally, I will offer a some closing remarks on how philosophical work aimed at clarifying socially-salient concepts can be practically helpful for future philosophical projects (metaphysics, philosophy of language) and empirical research projects.

This talk is part of the CamPoS (Cambridge Philosophy of Science) seminar series.

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