Bio
Michael O’Rourke is Professor of Philosophy at Michigan State University, where he is also a faculty member in AgBioResearch and affiliate in the Environmental Science & Policy Program and the Center for Gender in Global Context. He is Executive Director of the Toolbox Dialogue Initiative Center, an NSF-sponsored research initiative that investigates philosophical approaches to facilitating interdisciplinary research.
Dr. O’Rourke’s research interests include environmental philosophy, the nature of epistemic integration and communication in collaborative, cross-disciplinary research, and the nature of linguistic communication between intelligent agents. He has published extensively on the topics of communication, interdisciplinary theory and practice, and robotic agent design. He has been a co-principal investigator or collaborator on funded projects involving autonomous underwater vehicles, biodiversity conservation, sustainable agriculture, and resilience in environmental systems. He co-founded and served as co-director of the Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference, an interdisciplinary conference on philosophical themes, and as co-editor of the Topics in Contemporary Philosophy series published by MIT Press.
Selected Publications
Cwik, B., Gonnerman, C., O’Rourke, M., Robinson, B., Schoonmaker, D. (2022). “Building community capacity with philosophy: Toolbox dialogue and climate resilience.” Ecology and Society 27 (2):21.
Fam, D., O’Rourke, M. (Eds.) (2021). Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Failures: Lessons Learned from Cautionary Tales. London: Routledge.
O’Rourke, M., Vasko, S. E., McLeskey, C., Rinkus, M. A. (2020). :Philosophical dialogue as field philosophy.” In E. Brister and R. Frodeman (Eds), A Guide to Field Philosophy: Case Studies and Practical Strategies (pp. 48–65). New York: Routledge.
Valles, S., Piso, Z., O’Rourke, M. (2019). “Coupled ethical-epistemic analysis as a tool for environmental science.” Ethics, Policy & Environment. 22(3): 267–286.
Robinson, B., Gonnerman, C., O’Rourke, M. (2019). “Experimental philosophy of science and philosophical differences across the sciences.” Philosophy of Science. 86(3): 551–576.
Hall, T. E., Engebretson, J., O’Rourke, M., Piso, Z., Whyte, K., Valles, S. (2017). “The need for social ethics in interdisciplinary environmental science graduate programs: Results from a nation-wide survey in the United States.” Science and Engineering Ethics. 23(2): 565–588.
Robinson, B., Vasko, S. E., Gonnerman, C., Christen, M., O’Rourke, M. (2016). “Human values and the value of humanities in interdisciplinary research.” Cogent Arts & Humanities 3(1).
O’Rourke, M. “Philosophy as a Theoretical Foundation for I2S.” (2013). In G. Bammer, Disciplining Interdisciplinarity: Integration and Implementation Sciences for Researching Complex Real-World Problems, Canberra: ANU E Press.
O’Rourke, M., Crowley, S. (2012). “Philosophical intervention and cross-disciplinary science: The story of the Toolbox Project.” Synthese, doi: 10.1007/s11229-012-0175-y.
Kabasenche, W., O’Rourke, M., Slater, M. eds. (2012). The Environment: Philosophy, Science, and Ethics, Topics in Contemporary Philosophy Vol. 9. MIT Press.
Eigenbrode, S., M. O’Rourke, J. D. Wulfhorst, D. M. Althoff, C. S. Goldberg, K. Merrill, W. Morse, M. Nielsen-Pincus, J. Stephens, L. Winowiecki, N. A. Bosque-Pérez. (2007). “Employing Philosophical Dialogue in Collaborative Science,” BioScience, 57, pp. 55-64.