
James S.J. SchwartzWichita State University | WSU · Philosophy
James S.J. Schwartz
Doctor of Philosophy
About
43
Publications
17,723
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340
Citations
Introduction
Additional affiliations
October 2018 - present
Wichita Space Initiative
Position
- Founding Coordinator
Description
- www.wichita.edu/space
Education
August 2008 - September 2013
August 2004 - December 2007
Publications
Publications (43)
What freedoms can people expect in space and how will governance beyond Earth tread the fine line between authority and liberty? In this multi-author book, the contributors consider all aspects of liberty beyond Earth, from the near term: freedom to claim satellite orbits, to the very long-term: freedom on interstellar worldships. Liberty in societ...
We only see Mars from Earth's perspective in the first season of The Expanse , but Season 2 changes that by introducing Gunnery Sergeant Bobbie Draper, a Martian Congressional Republic Navy (MCRN) marine. Mars as seen by Martians resembles our Mars: ruddy, rocky, dusty, inhospitable, and cold. This chapter focuses on Draper and the Mars Congression...
We propose a Bill of Rights for space settlers, which includes rights associated with basic physiological needs; physical and psychological well‐being; freedom of expression; privacy; reproductive autonomy; vocational and educational liberty; communication; constrained dissent; and self‐governance. This document aims to inform future discussions ab...
We advocate for a "humanitarian review" of space settlement proposals, which takes seriously the various cultural and ethical questions that space settlement raises. As a preview of how such a review might be conducted, we discuss five rationales or objectives for space settlement (for long-term human survival; for resources; for scientific knowled...
I argue that citizens of future lunar states should enjoy the right to emigrate. The lethality of the space environment may result in lunar settlements pursuing oppressive and illiberal norms, policies, and laws in order to resolve societal problems. A right to emigrate, which for the foreseeable future is tantamount to a right to return to Earth,...
This chapter argues that the scope of planetary protection policies should be expanded to include all potential sites of interest to space science. It begins by providing an overview of planetary protection policies and their history. This is followed by discussions of Charles Cockell’s views on the ethics of microbial life, Holmes Rolston’s views...
This chapter argues that space resource exploitation should not be encouraged through enabling legislation. It discusses the legal context of space exploitation, rejecting oft-repeated promises that space exploitation will yield tangible benefits for the majority of humanity. Surveying recent planetary science research, it argues that most of the e...
This chapter highlights pushes to commercialize space exploration as foils for raising questions about which fundamental values and goals spaceflight serves, emphasizing the interdisciplinary nature of these issues. It also provides a summary of the book. Intended to contribute to professional philosophical discourse, this book is also intended to...
This concluding chapter argues that scientific exploration of the space environment should remain a priority even if space settlements are established, and even if technological breakthroughs decrease the cost of spaceflight enough to increase spaceflight activities by orders of magnitude. It addresses the enduring need to engage in scientific exam...
This chapter provides a detailed and epistemologically informed defense of the intrinsic value of scientific knowledge and understanding. It responds to Lars Bergström’s criticisms of the value of scientific knowledge. It then devises a naturalistic approach to intrinsic value that is used to argue that true belief (and, in turn, knowledge) is intr...
This chapter argues that there is not an urgent need for humans to establish space settlements. It defends the existence of an in-principle obligation to settle space to ensure long-term human survival, and shows that such an obligation is not defeated by various forms of skepticism about duties to future generations, including the “Non-Identity” p...
This chapter considers and rejects traditional spaceflight rationales, accenting the insubstantial evidence that is usually offered in their support. It uses regression analyses and public opinion data to show that spaceflight activities do not have a clear impact on either STEM degree conferral rates or overall scientific literacy within the Unite...
This chapter provides a defense of the instrumental value of scientific knowledge and understanding as well as a defense of the use of public funds in support of scientific research, including space science. It motivates a more sophisticated understanding of the “spinoff” justification for space exploration by drawing on research in philosophy of s...
The Value of Science in Space Exploration provides a rigorous assessment of the value of scientific knowledge and understanding in the context of contemporary space exploration. It argues that traditional spaceflight rationales are deficient, and that the strongest defense of spaceflight comes from its potential to produce intrinsically and instrum...
Humanity should not attempt to establish space societies that would not be open to “baseline” humans (e.g., those with species-typical oxygen or radiation protection needs). Two arguments are provided for this conclusion: The first argument is via analogy with disability and accessibility. Just as it would be impermissible today to mandate disabili...
This chapter addresses a sociological question that has largely been ignored: How much does the public care about life in space? It argues that there is no clear evidence of widespread support in the United States for the scientific search for extraterrestrial life. First, a comparison with U.S. views on evolution suggests that many religious indiv...
I review Mars science goals, including those associated with the study of Mars' past and present habitability, as well as those associated with understanding Mars' atmosphere and climate. I argue that Mars settlement initiatives would be likely to frustrate attempts to satisfy many of these goals, and therefore that it would be prudent for the Mars...
I review Mars science goals, including those associated with the study of Mars' past and present habitability, as well as those associated with understanding Mars' atmosphere and climate. I argue that Mars settlement initiatives would likely frustrate attempts to satisfy many of these goals, and therefore that it would be prudent for the Mars scien...
To appear in an upcoming astrobiology volume edited by Kelly Smith and Carlos Mariscal.
An interactive debate among 15 interdisciplinary scholars on various ethical issues surrounding human colonization of other worlds.
In this paper I argue that obligations associated with the scientific exploration and study of the solar system are, over sub-millennial timescales, stronger than obligations associated with the preservation of humanity via space settlement. Thus my objection is not to space settlement as such, but rather, to those claiming an urgent need to instig...
I argue that the attempts of astrobiologists and philosophers to provide an ethical justification for planetary protection policies (in particular, those aspects of policy concerning forward contamination ) suffer from a ‘life bias’ in that reasons for protection are regarded as genuinely ethical only when they include some kind of direct moral con...
This paper discusses a variety of ethical concerns raised by worldship travel. It is argued that there are many ways in which worldship travel risks wrongfully exploiting the shipborn, i.e., the generations of persons who are born and must live their entire lives aboard ship. Avoiding this exploitation requires refraining from instigating worldship...
I argue against a common belief among space advocates that spaceflight is "educationally inspiring" in that it has a clear, positive impact on scientific literacy and on STEM education. On the basis of a variety of survey analyses I show that, while there is some indication that being scientifically literate makes a person more likely to support sp...
Space advocates commonly compare the settling of the “space frontier” to the settling of the “western frontier” in the United States, arguing that space settlement will realize the same benefits purportedly realized by the western expansion of the United States: the generation of new cultures; the development of new technologies; and the empowermen...
This paper discusses the “myth” that we have an innate drive to explore or to migrate into space. Three interpretations of the claim are considered. According to the “mystical interpretation,” it is part of our “destiny” as humans to explore and migrate into space. Such a claim has no rational basis and should play no role in rationally- or evidenc...
One of the most common and enduring justifications for space exploration is that resources are limited here but plentiful elsewhere. Exploration has the potential to enable humanity to access the vast store of resources throughout our solar system. Recent discussion (driven to some extent by U.S. legislation and by speculation about the future role...
The contributions to the volume are accessible and state-of-the-art overviews of several of the major “theoretical” and “practical” issues in space ethics. Ranging from matters of inherent value and theory construction, through to the risks associated with nuclear powered space probes. Multiple disciplines, from astrobiology and space law through t...
This chapter addresses space’s impact on the methods of normative and applied ethics. My primary contention, by way of the dispute between value monism and pluralism in environmental
ethics
, is that our knowledge of the space environment
has not advanced to the point where we can say decisively what is or is not intrinsically valuable in space. Th...
There is a small finite upper bound on the amount of easily accessible water in near-Earth space, including water from C-type NEAs and permanently shadowed lunar craters. Recent estimates put this total at about 3.7×1012kg. Given the non-renewable nature of this resource, we should begin thinking carefully about the regulation of near-Earth water s...
This chapter defends the claim that at least some essential service strikes will be morally permissible in lunar societies. I argue by analogy with essential service strikes in medicine. The duty to provide medical care is not borne exclusively by nurses
and physicians but rather is borne by a wider healthcare community, which includes hospital adm...
This book aims to contribute significantly to the understanding of issues of value (including the ultimate value of space-related activities) which repeatedly emerge in interdisciplinary discussions on space and society. Although a recurring feature of discussions about space in the humanities, the treatment of value questions has tended to be patc...
This chapter takes seriously the prospects for applying Rawlsian ideas of fairness to various aspects of space policy. I argue that Rawlsian ideas of fairness are naturally suited to underwrite orbital access regulations, debris mitigation recommendations, and planetary protection policies. I also explore some of the obstacles to applying fairness...
Mark Brown and David Guston have outlined a framework for addressing state protection of scientific freedom in the contemporary United States, arguing that a limited freedom of scientific research improves democratic governance. I show how this reasoning, with modification, can be applied to protection of scientific freedom in a democratic lunar so...
According to Stewart Shapiro's coherence principle, structures exist whenever they can be coherently described. I argue that Shapiro's attempts to justify this principle (along with his position, ante rem structuralism) are circular, as he relies on criticisms of modal nominalism which presuppose the coherence principle. I argue further that when t...
I argue that the moral justification for space science is more compelling than the moral justification for space development. Thus, we ought to reemphasize the status of science as a major stakeholder in space, especially when entertaining policies which might encourage the kinds of space development activities (e.g. resource exploitation) that are...
Terraforming is a process of planetary engineering by which the extant environment of a planet is manipulated so as to produce an Earth-like ecosystem. This paper explores the ethical questions about the exploration of space and the exploitation of space resources that arise in the consideration of terraforming. I argue that space advocacy (includi...
The moral obligation to support space exploration follows from our obligations to protect the environment and to survive as a species. It can be justified through three related arguments: one supporting space exploration as necessary for acquiring resources, and two illustrating the need for space technology in order to combat extraterrestrial thre...