Philip Olson, PhD
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Graduate Courses
All courses taught at Virginia Tech
A mandatory, core course in our curriculum. This course offers an overview of the field of STS and various subfields within STS, while examining key questions and concerns within STS.
An interdisciplinary graduate seminar devoted to the study of the dead human body as an object of scientific inquiry, as a political instrument, a sacred object or symbol, a profane entity, a source of nutrients, a logistical program, an industrial material, a commodity, a type of solid waste, etc. We examine technologies of the corpse and their uses, formations of expertise, relationships between medical and mortuary sciences, social infrastructure, and the technification of the human body.
A graduate seminar examining ethical issues arising in basic and applied biology, medical, environmental, ecological, and energy studies. We study the origins and development of ethical issues related to scientific practice (e.g., the care and treatment of animals, human experimentation, plagiarism, falsification of data, etc.), public policy, and the impact of scientific research on both the human and non-
human world
Other Grad Seminars I've Taught
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Feminist Epistemology (Philosophy)
Virtue Epistemology (Philosophy)
American Pragmatism (Philosophy)
Neoliberalism and Society (ASPECT)
Undergraduate Courses
All courses taught at Virginia Tech
Technology Ethics
Critical, interdisciplinary exploration of ethical considerations regarding human engagements with technology, including technological development, use, success and failure. History and fundamental concepts of normative ethics and their application to specific technologies and technological systems. Emphasis on conceptualizations and representations of technology with respect to various social, cultural, and historical perspectives on nature, human nature, and technological artifacts. (3H, 3C)
Introduction to Science & Technology Studies
Introduction to the interrelationship among science, technology, and society. Study of how science, including medicine, and technology are defined and analyzed by the humanities and social sciences. Examination of topics, theories, and methods of the field of Science and Technology Studies. Depiction of the dynamics of scientific and technological controversies including the roles knowledge, risk, rhetoric and public understanding play in policy making.
Course examining the history of the funeral industry in the US; contemporary funeral trends; relationships between medical
science/practice and mortuary science/practice; uses of various technologies in the disposition of human remains (embalming, cremation, alkaline hydrolysis, etc.); as well as religious, cultural, public health, regulatory, environmental, and labor issues related to funerary customs and practices.
This course examines the roles of medicine in a life well lived, asking when and how medicine makes our lives better, and when and how medicine fails to do what it ought to do. In this course we look at the ways particular people have experienced medicine in their lives. That is to say, we will consider narratives and case studies that call us to think about our encounters with medicine, and to reflect upon what we (individually and collectively) want and don’t want from medicine, its institutions, and its practitioners.
Epistemology (Philosophy: advanced)
An mixed grad/undergrad course devoted to the study of major topics and approaches within contemporary epistemology, including the analysis of knowledge, justification, skepticism, epistemic rationality,
epistemic virtue and value, evidentialism, contextualism, relativism, formal epistemology, and social epistemology
Other Undergraduate Courses I've Taught
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Morality and Justice (Philosophy)
Ethical Theory (Philosophy)
Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy)
Knowledge and Reality (Philosophy)