S2 Ep 10 - Katherine Furman on 'The Philosophy of Public Health'

"Philosophers of science are really good about thinking about causation and trying to figure out what the mechanisms are that make something work"

Today we welcome Katherine Furman, who talks to Indi about the philosophy of public health. Katherine is a lecturer of Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Liverpool. She is currently on research leave to work with the SOCRATES project in Hanover, Germany.

Katherine explores with us the intricacies of implementing public health measures in the face of epidemics. When there is resistance to these programs, the cause is rarely as simple as an information deficit. Katherine draws on her South African background in her focus on the South African AIDS epidemic and how various case studies of rejection of public health programs may be applicable to the wider philosophy of science.

Transcript of the episode available here: https://www.hpsunimelb.org/post/katherine-furman-transcript-s2-e10

Resources related to the episode:

Katherine's Website: https://katherinefurman.com/

SOCRATES Centre: https://www.socrates.uni-hannover.de/en/ 

Maya Goldenberg's Book: Vaccine Hesitancy: Public Trust, Expertise, and the War on Science

Benjamin Black's Book: Belly Woman: Birth, Blood & Ebola - the Untold Story

Article on Ebola: Ebola: failures, flashpoints and focus | | Africa at LSE

Jonny Steinberg's Book: Three Letter Plague

Heidi Larson's Book: Stuck: How Vaccine Rumors Start - and Why They Don't Go Away

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This podcast would not be possible without the support of School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne and the Hansen Little Public Humanities Grant scheme.

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