Adversarial Collaboration in Philosophy (guest post)

“Philosophical work would be better with adversaries collaborating to keep each other honest.” Why is that? What would it look like? In the following guest post, members of the Mind and Morality Lab at Boston University—Victor Kumar (Boston University), Derek Anderson (Boston University), Emilia Lacy (Boston University), Josh May (University of Alabama, Birmingham), Rachel McKinney (Suffolk University), Tino Themelis (Boston University), and Velana Valdez (Boston University)—explain adversarial collaboration and offer answers to those questions. Adversarial Collaboration in Philosophy by Victor Kumar, Derek Anderson, Emilia Lacy, Josh May, Rachel McKinney, Tino Themelis, and Velana Valdez Scientists, being only human, often collect and analyze data in ways that unintentionally skew the results in their favor. Thankfully, this occupational disease has a known cure. In adversarial collaboration, researchers with conflicting hypotheses lay down their arms, joining forces to work out a…