•  6
    Equilibrium modeling in economics: a design-based defense
    Journal of Economic Methodology 31 (1): 36-53. 2024.
    Several authors have recently argued that the excessive focus on equilibrium models in mainstream economic analysis prevents economists from providing accurate representations of the complex and dynamic nature of real economic systems. In response, this paper argues the following. Many economic systems are the products of deliberate and centralized human design. People can and do build and support structures, such as social institutions, aiming to enhance the predictability of economic systems, …Read more
  •  11
    Institutional Corruption
    Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 25 (3). 2023.
    While corruption has long been recognized as a major social problem, only relatively recently has the importance of a specific institutional form of corruption been noted. However, despite the fact that institutional corruption has come to be seen as very important, it remains a challenge to specify exactly what makes something a case of institutional corruption. To overcome this challenge, this paper argues that institutional corruption is the result of an individual or collective agent acting …Read more
  •  45
    Micro-foundations and Methodology: A Complexity-Based Reconceptualization of the Debate
    with Nadia Ruiz
    British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 74 (2): 359-379. 2023.
    In a number of very influential publications, Epstein and Hoover (among other authors) have recently argued that a thoroughly micro-foundationalist approach towards economics is unconvincing for metaphysical reasons. However, as we show in this article, this metaphysical/social ontological approach to the debate fails to resolve the status of micro-foundations in the practice of economic modelling. To overcome this, we argue that endogenizing a model—that is, providing micro-foundations for it—c…Read more
  •  3
    Explaining Human Diversity: the Need to Balance Fit and Complexity
    Review of Philosophy and Psychology 14 (2): 457-475. 2021.
    While the existence of human cognitive and behavioral diversity is now widely recognized, it is not yet well established how to explain this diversity. In particular, it is still unclear how to determine whether any given instance of human cognitive and behavioral diversity is due to a common psychology that is merely “triggered” differently in different bio-cultural environments, or whether it is due to deeply and fundamentally different psychologies. This paper suggests that, to answer this qu…Read more
  •  31
    The Evolution of Psychological Altruism
    Philosophy of Science 85 (5): 1054-1064. 2018.
    We argue that there are two different kinds of altruistic motivation: classical psychological altruism, which generates ultimate desires to help other organisms at least partly for those organisms’ sake, and nonclassical psychological altruism, which generates ultimate desires to help other organisms for the sake of the organism providing the help. We then argue that classical psychological altruism is adaptive if the desire to help others is intergenerationally reliable and, thus, need not be l…Read more
  •  380
    Introduction: The biology of psychological altruism
    Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 56 1-2. 2016.
    I develop a distinction between two types of psychological hedonism. Inferential hedonism (or “I-hedonism”) holds that each person only has ultimate desires regarding his or her own hedonic states (pleasure and pain). Reinforcement hedonism (or “R–hedonism”) holds that each person's ultimate desires, whatever their contents are, are differentially reinforced in that person’s cognitive system only by virtue of their association with hedonic states. I’ll argue that accepting R-hedonism and rejecti…Read more
  •  11
    In dem wilden wald Außerhöfische Sonderräume, Liminalität und mythisierendes Erzählen in den Tristan-Dichtungen: Eilhart — Béroul — Gottfried
    Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft Und Geistesgeschichte 77 (4): 515-547. 2003.
  •  3
    This book is the first systematic treatment of the philosophy of science underlying evolutionary economics. It does not advocate an evolutionary approach towards economics, but rather assesses the epistemic value of appealing to evolutionary biology in economics more generally. The author divides work in evolutionary economics into three distinct, albeit related, forms: a structural form, an evidential form, and a heuristic form. He then analyzes five examples of work in evolutionary economics f…Read more
  •  10
    What’s the Point? A Presentist Social Functionalist Account of Institutional Purpose
    Philosophy of the Social Sciences 52 (1-2): 53-80. 2022.
    Although it is clear that many of the major contemporary social problems center on the extent to which social institutions do or do not function as they are meant to do, it is still unclear exactly what the function of a social institution is—and thus when this function is undermined. This paper presents and defends a novel theory of social functionalism—presentist social functionalism—to answer these questions. According to this theory, the function of social institutions is grounded in those o…Read more
  •  7
    Recent anthropological, archaeological, and psychological findings support the view that humans have long been driven by a deep sense of curiosity that needs little if any special external material reward. Apart from being inherently interesting, these findings also turn out to have some wide-ranging consequences for central debates in other social sciences—such as economics. In particular, it is still often thought that, without extensive patent protections, economic actors lack the incentive t…Read more
  •  6
    Humans are standouts in their propensity to trade. More specially, the kind of trading found in humans—featuring the exchange of many different goods and services with many different others, for the mutual benefit of all the involved parties—far exceeds anything that is found in any other creature. However, a number of important questions about this propensity remain open. First, it is not clear exactly what makes this propensity so different in the human case from that of other animals. Second,…Read more
  •  13
    What’s the Point? A Presentist Social Functionalist Account of Institutional Purpose
    Sage Publications Inc: Philosophy of the Social Sciences 52 (1-2): 53-80. 2021.
    Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Volume 52, Issue 1-2, Page 53-80, January-March 2022. Although it is clear that many of the major contemporary social problems center on the extent to which social institutions do or do not function as they are meant to do, it is still unclear exactly what the function of a social institution is—and thus when this function is undermined. This paper presents and defends a novel theory of social functionalism—presentist social functionalism—to answer these questi…Read more
  •  62
    Episodic Memory, Simulated Future Planning, and their Evolution
    Review of Philosophy and Psychology 14 (3): 811-832. 2023.
    The pressures that led to the evolution of episodic memory have recently seen much discussion, but a fully satisfactory account of them is still lacking. We seek to make progress in this debate by taking a step backward, identifying four possible ways that episodic memory could evolve in relation to simulationist future planning—a similar and seemingly related ability. After distinguishing each of these possibilities, the paper critically discusses existing accounts of the evolution of episodic …Read more
  •  7
    Idealizations and Partitions: A Defense of Robustness Analysis
    with Gareth P. Fuller
    European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11 (4): 1-15. 2021.
    We argue that the robustness analysis of idealized models can have confirmational power. This responds to concerns recently raised in the literature, according to which the robustness analysis of models whose idealizations are not discharged is unable to confirm the causal mechanisms underlying these models, and the robustness analysis of models whose idealizations are discharged is unnecessary. In response, we make clear that, where idealizations sweep out, in a specific way, the space of possi…Read more
  •  18
    Explaining Human Diversity: the Need to Balance Fit and Complexity
    Review of Philosophy and Psychology 14 (2): 1-19. 2021.
    While the existence of human cognitive and behavioral diversity is now widely recognized, it is not yet well established how to explain this diversity. In particular, it is still unclear how to determine whether any given instance of human cognitive and behavioral diversity is due to a common psychology that is merely “triggered” differently in different bio-cultural environments, or whether it is due to deeply and fundamentally different psychologies. This paper suggests that, to answer this qu…Read more
  •  40
    Three facts are widely thought to be key to the characterization of human cognitive uniqueness (though a number of other factors are often cited as well): (a) humans are sophisticated cultural learners; (b) humans often rely on mental states with rich representational contents; and (c) humans have the ability and disposition to make and use tools. This article argues that (a)–(c) create a positive feedback loop: Sophisticated cultural learning makes possible the manufacture of tools that increas…Read more
  •  2
    Interpretations of probability
    In Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic, . pp. 81. 2010.
    Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
  • Probability
    In Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic, . pp. 80. 2010.
    Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
  •  1
    Probabilistic logic
    In Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic, . pp. 57. 2010.
    Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
  •  3
    Bayesianism
    In Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic, . pp. 27. 2010.
    Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
  •  1
    Richard Jeffrey
    In Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic, . pp. 129. 2010.
    Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
  •  7
    Interpretations of probability
    In Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic. The key terms in philosophy, Continuum. pp. 81. 2010.
    Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
  •  5
    Probabilistic logic
    In Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic. The key terms in philosophy, Continuum. pp. 57. 2010.
    Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
  •  5
    Bayesianism
    In Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic. The key terms in philosophy, Continuum. pp. 27. 2010.
    Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
  •  7
    Probabilistic logic
    In Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic. The key terms in philosophy, Continuum. pp. 57. 2010.
    Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
  •  7
    Probability
    In Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic. The key terms in philosophy, Continuum. 2010.
    Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
  •  9
    Richard Jeffrey
    In Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic. The key terms in philosophy, Continuum. pp. 129. 2010.
    Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
  •  6
    Interpretations of probability
    In Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic. The key terms in philosophy, Continuum. 2010.
    Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
  •  6
    Bayesianism
    In Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic. The key terms in philosophy, Continuum. 2010.
    Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more