Philosophy of the Field, In the Field

Abstract

Recent advocates of “field philosophy” make the case that philosophy “needs to get outside more often”; alongside disciplinary modes of practice we should cultivate philosophical work that is “practically engaged, stakeholder-centered, and timely” (Frodeman and Briggle 2016). As illustrated by The Guide to Field Philosophy (2020), this takes a great many different forms. I draw on three examples of field-engaged philosophy of science that address the legacies of settler-colonialism in a field science, archaeology, to illustrate the promise of field philosophy in relation to a framework for analyzing “broadly engaged philosophy of science” proposed by Plaisance and Elliott (2021).