This volume contains a selection of the symposium papers from the 27th Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association (PSA), PSA 2021, memorable as the PSA meeting that was postponed for the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting was held November 11–14, 2021, in Baltimore, Maryland—rescheduled from November 2020. The PSA received 80 symposium proposals, from which the Program Committee selected 40 for presentation at the meeting. In all, the presented symposia comprised 175 papers; this volume includes 39 of those papers. A selection of the contributed papers from the 27th Biennial Meeting was published previously in the December 2021 issue of Philosophy of Science. Alison Wylie’s presidential address will be included in a subsequent issue.
Many people deserve thanks for their significant contributions to the production of this volume. Thank you, first, to those who collaborated to develop symposia proposals for PSA 2021. The excellent and wide-ranging work submitted to this meeting well illustrates the current strength and variety of philosophy of science.
The members of the PSA 2020/2021 Program Committee invested an enormous amount of time and effort in reading and evaluating symposia proposals and the papers that emerged from symposia presentations. The committee includes:
Valia Allori (Northern Illinois University)
Holly Andersen (Simon Fraser University) Karim Bschir (University St. Gallen)
Daniel Burnston (Tulane University)
Julia Bursten (University of Kentucky)
Adrian Currie (University of Exeter)
Melinda Fagan (University of Utah)
Joyce Havstad (University of Utah)
Yoichi Ishida (Ohio University)
Jennifer Jhun (Duke University)
Colin Klein (Australian National University)
Olimpia Lombardi (University of Buenos Aires)
John Mathewson (Massey University)
Inmaculada de Melo-Martín (Cornell University)
Eric Pacuit (University of Maryland, January–February 2020)
Richard Pettigrew (University of Bristol)
Darrell Rowbottom (Lingnan University)
Jacqueline Sullivan (Western University)
Jonathan Tsou (Iowa State University)
Giovanni Valente (Politecnico di Milano)
David Wallace (University of Pittsburgh)
Robert Wilson (University of Western Australia)
Jessica Pfeifer, PSA executive director from 2013 through 2020, deserves tremendous thanks for her strong leadership and tireless work in planning PSA 2021, including through disruptions from COVID-19 and when the PSA unexpectedly found itself without an executive director in the lead-up to the 2021 meeting. You can find a slideshow tribute to Jessica’s leadership on the PSA website at https://philsci.org/tribute_to_jessica_pfeifer.php. Taraneh Wilkinson, assistant director of the PSA, also stepped in to ensure PSA 2021 ran smoothly in the absence of an executive director. Gratitude is also owed to the new PSA executive director, Max Cormendy, who is masterfully guiding the PSA into its next chapter.
Kevin Elliott, PSA 2018 program chair, was generous with his helpful advice and encouragement. I also owe thanks to the Philosophy of Science editorial team, particularly editor-in-chief Andrea Woody and managing editor Kayla Mehl-Hutchinson. It was a pleasure to work with both throughout the production process; their guidance and support were always speedy and valuable.
Finally, I am grateful to the PSA Governing Board and especially PSA president Alison Wylie and her successor, PSA president John Dupré, for the opportunity to serve as PSA 2020/2021 program chair, for the financial support enabling me to have a reduced teaching load while in the role, and for the board’s unparalleled leadership through a time of many PSA transitions as well as pandemic disruptions.
Thank you, once again, to everyone who contributed to PSA 2021 and to the authors who wrote the papers comprising this volume. The most rewarding aspect of serving as program chair has been learning about the wide range of impressive scholarship produced by members of the PSA.
