Philosophy of science is booming-at least in sheer quantitative terms, such as the numbers of scholars and professional organizations associated with the field. On the surface, one might attribute these trends to the concurrent growth of science itself, along with the large amounts of funding committed to scientific research and the lasting cultural power of scientific paradigms in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Yet, much work in the philosophy of science continues in nearly complete isolation from real scientific practice. The Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice (SPSP) grew out of a recognition of the need to promote the philosophical study of "science in practice", by which the organizers of the Society meant both scientific practice and the functioning of science in practical realms of life. Despite occasional exceptions such as some recent literature on models, experimentation, and measurement which have engaged in detailed consideration of scientific practices in pursuit of their philosophical points, concern with practice has tended to fall outside the mainstream of Anglophone analytic philosophy of science. SPSP was founded with the aim of changing this situation, through the promotion of
Since the February 2020 publication of the article ‘Flattening the curve’ in The Economist, political leaders worldwide have used this expression to legitimize the introduction of social distancing measures in fighting Covid-19. In fact, this expression represents a complex combination of three components: the shape of the epidemic curve, the social distancing measures and the reproduction number $$ \mathscr{R}_{0}$$
R
0
. Each component has its own history, each with a different history of control. Presenting the control of the epidemic as flattening the curve is in fact flattening the underlying natural-social complexity. The curve that needs to be flattened is presented as a bell-shaped curve, implicitly suggesting that the pathogen’s spread is subject only to natural laws. The $$ \mathscr{R}$$
R
value, however, is, fundamentally, a metric of how a pathogen behaves within a social context, namely its numerical value is affected by sociopolitical influences. The jagged and erratic empirical curve of Covid-19 illustrates this. Although the virus has most likely infected only a small portion of the total susceptible population, it is clear its shape has changed drastically. This changing shape is largely due to sociopolitical factors. These include shifting formal laws and policies, shifting individual behaviors as well as shifting various other social norms and practices. This makes the course of Covid-19 curve both erratic and unpredictable.
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