Daniel J. Hicks

Associate Professor of Philosophy

University of California, Merced

Areas of interest

Philosophy: philosophy of science, ethics, social and political philosophy

Science and Technology Studies: science policy, environmental policy

Data Science: text mining, bibliometrics, philosophy of statistical modeling

Professional appointments

2023- Associate Professor of Philosophy University of California, Merced (Department of Philosophy; Affiliate Faculty, Public Health Graduate Group; Affiliate Faculty, Health Sciences Research Institute)

2019-2023 Assistant Professor of Philosophy University of California, Merced (Department of Cognitive Science)

2017-2019 Postdoctoral Researcher University of California, Davis (Data Science Intiative)

2015-2017 Science and Technology Policy Fellow American Assocation for the Advancement of Science (2015-16: Hosted by the Environmental Protection Agency, Chemical Safety for Sustainability Program; 2016-17: Hosted by the National Science Foundation, National Robotics Initiative)

2013-2015 Postdoctoral Fellow University of Western Ontario (Rotman Institute of Philosophy)

2012-2013 Postdoctoral Fellow University of Notre Dame (College of Arts and Letters and Department of Philosophy)

Education

2012 PhD, Philosophy University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN)

2003 MS, Mathematics University of Illinois, Chicago (Chicago, IL)

2002 BS, Mathematics + Politics and Government University of Puget Sound (Tacoma, WA)

Peer-reviewed publications

1.
Hicks, D. J. (2023). Open science, the replication crisis, and environmental public health. Accountability in Research, 30(1), 34–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/08989621.2021.1962713
2.
Contreras Kallens, P., Hicks, D. J., & Jennings, C. D. (2022). Networks in philosophy: Social networks and employment in academic philosophy. Metaphilosophy, 53(5), 653–684. https://doi.org/10.1111/meta.12591
3.
Hicks, D. J. (2022). When Virtues are Vices: ’Anti-Science’ Epistemic Values in Environmental Politics. Philosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology, 14(0, 0). https://doi.org/10.3998/.2629
4.
Hicks, D. J. (2022). The P value plot does not provide evidence against air pollution hazards. Environmental Epidemiology, 6(2), e198. https://doi.org/10.1097/EE9.0000000000000198
5.
Hicks, D. J., & Lobato, E. J. C. (2022). Values disclosures and trust in science: A replication study. Frontiers in Communication, 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2022.1017362
6.
Hicks, D. J. (2021). Productivity and interdisciplinary impacts of Organized Research Units. Quantitative Science Studies, 2(3), 990–1022. https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00150
7.
Hicks, D. J., Magnus, P. D., & Wright, J. (2020). Inductive Risk, Science, and Values: A Reply to MacGillivray. Risk Analysis, 40(4), 667–673. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13434
8.
Hicks, D. J. (2020). Census Demographics and Chlorpyrifos Use in California’s Central Valley, 2011–15: A Distributional Environmental Justice Analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(7, 7), 2593. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17072593
9.
Hicks, D. J., Coil, D. A., Stahmer, C. G., & Eisen, J. A. (2019). Network analysis to evaluate the impact of research funding on research community consolidation. PLOS ONE, 14(6), e0218273. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218273
10.
Fernández Pinto, M., & Hicks, D. J. (2019). Legitimizing Values in Regulatory Science. Environmental Health Perspectives, 127(3), 035001. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP3317
11.
Hicks, D., & Simmons, R. (2019). The National Robotics Initiative: A Five-Year Retrospective. IEEE Robotics Automation Magazine, 26(3), 2–9. https://doi.org/10.1109/MRA.2019.2912860
12.
Hicks, D. J. (2018). The Safety of Autonomous Vehicles: Lessons from Philosophy of Science. IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 37(1), 62–69. https://doi.org/10.1109/MTS.2018.2795123
13.
Hicks, D. J., Stahmer, C., & Smith, M. (2018). Impacting Capabilities: A Conceptual Framework for the Social Value of Research. Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics. https://doi.org/10.3389/frma.2018.00024
14.
Hicks, D. J. (2018). Inductive Risk and Regulatory Toxicology: A Comment on de Melo-Martín and Intemann. Philosophy of Science, 85(1), 164–174. https://doi.org/10.1086/694771
15.
Hicks, D. J. (2017). Genetically Modified Crops, Inclusion, and Democracy. Perspectives on Science, 25(4), 488–520. https://doi.org/10.1162/POSC_a_00251
16.
Hicks, D. J. (2016). Bibliometrics for Social Validation. PLOS ONE, 11(12), e0168597. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0168597
17.
Hicks, D. J., & Stapleford, T. A. (2016). The Virtues of Scientific Practice: MacIntyre, Virtue Ethics, and the Historiography of Science. Isis, 107(3), 449–472. https://doi.org/10.1086/688346
18.
Hicks, D. J. (2015). Epistemological depth in a GM crops controversy. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 50, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2015.02.002
19.
Hicks, D. J. (2015). On Okin’s critique of libertarianism. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 45(1), 37–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/00455091.2014.996118
20.
Hicks, D. J. (2014). A new direction for science and values. Synthese, 191(14), 3271–3295. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-014-0447-9
21.
Hicks, D. (2011). On the Ideal of Autonomous Science. Philosophy of Science, 78(5), 1235–1248. https://doi.org/10.1086/662255
22.
Hicks, D. J. (2011). Is Longino’s Conception of Objectivity Feminist? Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, 26(2), 333–351. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-2001.2010.01160.x

Other scholarly products

1.
Hicks, D. J. (2023, May 2). Tmfast fits topic models fast. http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.01535
2.
Hicks, D. J. (2023). Review of Cartwright, A Philosopher Looks at Science. Philosophy of Science, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1017/psa.2023.63
3.
Hicks, D. (2022, March 16). Young’s P-Value Plot as an Agnogenic Technique, Dan Hicks. Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective. https://social-epistemology.com/2022/03/16/youngs-p-value-plot-as-an-agnogenic-technique-dan-hicks/
4.
Stapleford, T. A., & Hicks, D. J. (2021). Seeing Science as a Communal Practice: MacIntyre, Virtue Ethics, and the Study of Science. In E. Ratti & T. A. Stapleford (Eds.), Science, Technology, and Virtues: Contemporary Perspectives. Oxford University Press. https://books.google.com?id=R30_EAAAQBAJ
5.
Hicks, D. J. (2020, May 20). Comment submitted by Daniel J. Hicks, Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced. Regulations.gov. https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=EPA-HQ-OA-2018-0259-11405
6.
Brister, E., & Hicks, D. J. (2020). Contributions of Women to Philosophy of Science: A Bibliometric Analysis. In S. Crasnow & K. Intemann (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Feminist Philosophy of Science. Routledge.
7.
Hicks, D. J., Morris, R., & Brister, E. (2018). Computational History of Philosophy of Science (Comp HOPOS) Dataset [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1400633
8.
Hicks, D. J. (2018, June 19). Kevin C. Elliott and Ted Richards, Exploring Inductive Risk. BJPS Review of Books. https://bjpsbooks.wordpress.com/2018/06/19/elliott-richards-exploring-inductive-risk
9.
Hicks, D., & Elliott, K. (2018). A Framework for Understanding Wishful Thinking. http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/14348/
10.
Hicks, D. (2017, December 18). The Underproduction of Philosophy PhDs. Daily Nous. http://dailynous.com/2017/12/18/underproduction-philosophy-phds-daniel-hicks/
11.
Hicks, D. J., & Millstein, R. L. (2016). GMOs: Non-health Issues. In P. B. Thompson & D. M. Kaplan (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics (pp. 1–11). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6167-4_545-1
12.
Hicks, D. J. (2015). Myles Jackson, The Genealogy of a Gene. Monash Bioethics Review, 34, 88–91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40592-015-0043-x
13.
Hicks, D. (2013). Paul Pojman (ed): Food ethics, Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, Boston, Massachusetts, 2012, 199 pp, ISBN 9781111772307 David Kaplan (ed): The philosophy of food, University of California Press, Berkeley, California, 2012, 320 pp, ISBN 9780520269330. Agriculture and Human Values, 30(4), 657–658. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-013-9468-0
14.
Hicks, D. J. (2012). Scientific Practices and Their Social Context. U. of Notre Dame.

Public talks and publications

1.
Hicks, D. (2021). Comment on Mills, ’Unmasking Scientific Expertise’. Issues in Science and Technology, 38. https://issues.org/veneer-objectivity-unmasking-expertise-mills-forum/
2.
Hicks, D. J. (2017, January). Scientific Controversies as Proxy Politics. Issues in Science and Technology, 33, 67–72. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24891967

Students

  • Emilio Lobato (UC Merced, Ph.D., co-advisor)
  • Daisy Underhill (UC Davis, Ph.D., prospectus committee member)
  • Aaron Chavez (UC Davis, Ph.D., prospectus committee member)
  • Dennis Perez (UC Merced, M.A., committee member)
  • Anthony Sainez (UC Merced, undergraduate, research supervisor)
  • Kaeda Sabrewing (UC Merced, undergraduate, research supervisor)