Growing up, Adam Briggle was concerned about environmental problems and thought he would become an environmental scientist. While studying biology, though, he realised that environmental problems are not merely scientific. They are also driven by ethics and values, including ideas about beauty, sense of place and identity. This led him to philosophy.
鈥淔ield philosophy entails not just talking about the ethics and values dimensions of real-world problems but engaging with the people who are actually struggling to define and resolve them.鈥�
He contrasts field philosophy with applied philosophy, where a philosopher can be seen as the expert applying an analysis to a particular case. Instead field philosophers work more like researchers in subjects such as geology, since they actually go outside and look at the rocks.
鈥淵ou are going into the field and discovering the ethics, values and philosophical questions that are already there. I help people to talk about them, because usually they're kind of under the surface driving a debate.鈥�
A golden age for philosophy
Karin Midner
Adam Briggle sees the rapid development of artificial intelligence as one of the most important ethical challenges facing today鈥檚 society. AI will affect everything from medicine and healthcare to politics and the economy.
鈥淚 feel like this is a golden age for philosophy. You have CEOs of tech companies openly wrestling with deeply philosophical questions about consciousness, welfare and what it means to be human.鈥�
AI makes it increasingly difficult to separate questions of science and technology from philosophical ones. The uncertainty surrounding its development also creates a space where philosophy has an important role to play.
鈥淧eople across the spectrum are saying 鈥�This is going to be wonderful鈥� to 鈥�This is going to kill humanity鈥�. If you ask me, it's very hard to see around the corner and imagine what's going to happen and that's where I think a lot of good philosophic work can be done.鈥�
When academic freedom is eroded
Karin Midner
鈥淗onestly, at first, I was shocked that you鈥檙e able to openly talk about this at LiU, because in the US, especially in Texas where I was, those subjects have for so long been attacked.鈥�
It made him realise how much he had become self-censoring when he was accustomed to restrictions on academic life in Texas.
鈥淚 didn't realize how it had warped my sense of academic freedom. I had just got used to it. It鈥檚 something you kind of slide into, because it happens over years, like a slow strangling of what you can talk about.鈥�
He describes an atmosphere of growing self-censorship and political pressure on universities in the US, which eventually made him feel that the situation had gone too far.
鈥淚t's like when a glacier leaves the landscape and all that pressure is gone, the land slowly rebounds. I feel like I'm still in that moment. I feel much safer and better about my working conditions because my new university defends these core values. But there's also sadness about what I left.鈥�
Sweden offers a new academic home
Adam Briggle believes Sweden's active efforts to welcome international researchers are part of its appeal. In his own case, a grant from the Swedish Research Council helped make the move with his family possible, with colleagues at LiU supporting the application.
鈥淚 feel like Sweden offers a refuge for academics who have been getting used to the erosion of their core values. It's refreshing to come to this place. I feel like I can become something new, something better, than I was before.鈥�
He describes the research environment of philosophy and applied ethics at LiU as dynamic and increasingly international. He wants to strengthen links with the international research community even more and open opportunities for larger EU-funded collaborations.
鈥淚 am excited to build bridges into this wider scholarly community. A lot has already been done in that direction by Harald Wiltsche and others, and I want to keep boosting our reputation.鈥�
