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1209Learning, Institutions, and Economic PerformancePerspectives on Politics 2 75-84. 2004.In this article, we provide a broad overview of the interplay among cognition, belief systems, and institutions, and how they affect economic performance. We argue that a deeper understanding of institutions’ emergence, their working properties, and their effect on economic and political outcomes should begin from an analysis of cognitive processes. We explore the nature of individual and collective learning, stressing that the issue is not whether agents are perfectly or boundedly rational, but…Read more
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1171Hermeneutik als rationale Methodenlehre der InterpretationZeitschrift für Philosophische Forschung 73 (2): 222-243. 2019.The aim of this paper is to show that intersubjective intelligibility, testability with the use of evidence, rational argumentation and objectivity are possible in the case of text interpretation. As far as one is willing to accept that the application of such standards make up science as a rational enterprise, one should also accept text interpretation as a rational enterprise and should be willing to qualify hermeneutics as a rational methodology of interpretation.
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1117Le Cercle Herméneutique. De Quel Type de Problème S'Agit-il?L' Année Sociologique 63 509-526. 2013.Le cercle herméneutique a été utilisé par tous ceux qui ont défendu la thèse de l’autonomie méthodologique des sciences humaines par rapport aux sciences naturelles. Il est généralement perçu comme un problème ontologique ou logique par les Herméneutistes. Le but de cet article est de montrer que le cercle herméneutique n’est ni l’un ni l’autre. Tout indique, plutôt, qu’il fait référence à un phénomène empirique, qui peut être étudié dans le cadre de la psycholinguistique et d’autres disciplines…Read more
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620Federalism and Individual LibertyConstitutional Political Economy 21 101-118. 2010.This paper explores the relationship between federalism and individual liberty. It is shown that a complete treatment of the relationship between federalism and individual liberty should consider two countervailing effects. On the one hand, a federalist structure enhances individual liberty by enlarging the choice set of the citizens. On the other hand, however, a federalist system leads to institutional diversity, a fact that per se leads to higher exit costs, which a citizen must bear if he or…Read more
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550Institutions and Scientific ProgressPhilosophy of the Social Sciences (3). 2020.Scientific progress has many facets and can be conceptualized in different ways, for example in terms of problem-solving, of truthlikeness or of growth of knowledge. The main claim of the paper is that the most important prerequisite of scientific progress is the institutionalization of competition and criticism. An institutional framework appropriately channeling competition and criticism is the crucial factor determining the direction and rate of scientific progress, independently on how one m…Read more
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505Was für ein Problem ist der hermeneutische Zirkel?Analyse & Kritik 30 (2): 601-612. 2008.The hermeneutic circle serves as a standard argument for all those who raise a claim to the autonomy of the human sciences. The proponents of an alternative methodology for the human sciences present the hermeneutic circle either as an ontological problem or as a specific methodological problem in the social sciences and the humanities. In this paper I would like to check the soundness of this argument. I will start with listing and shortly sketching out three variations of the problem. I will t…Read more
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476What kind of problem is the hermeneutic circle?In Chrysostomos Mantzavinos (ed.), Philosophy of the Social Sciences: Philosophical Theory and Scientific Practice, Cambridge University Press. pp. 299. 2009.The hermeneutic circle serves as a standard argument for all those who raise a claim to the autonomy of the human sciences. The proponents of an alternative methodology for the human sciences present the hermeneutic circle either as an ontological problem or as a specific methodological problem in the social sciences and the humanities. This paper checks the soundness of the argument by sketching out three variations of the problem and critically discussing them.
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462A Dialogue on RepublicanismRevue de Philosophie Économique 1 (1): 193-236. 2022.Two interlocutors, Philip Pettit and a student, are exchanging views on liberal political and economic philosophy during lunch at Prospect House, the faculty club of Princeton. The dialogue begins with clarifications of the notion of liberty, and, against objections of the student, Pettit introduces and defends his own conception of freedom as non-domination rather than as non-interference. It proceeds with an exchange of arguments regarding the different kinds of institutional settings that ent…Read more
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453The Institutional-Evolutionary Antitrust ModelEuropean Journal of Law and Economics 22 273-291. 2006.The purpose of this article is to provide an alternative antitrust model to the mainstream model that is used in competition policy. I call it the InstitutionalEvolutionary Antitrust Model. In order to construct an antitrust model one needs both empirical knowledge and considerations of how to adequately deal with norms. The analysis of competition as an evolutionary process that unfolds within legal rules provides the empirical foundation for the model. The development of the normative dimensio…Read more
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452The Plurality of Explanatory GamesIn Gianluca Manzo (ed.), Theories and Social Mechanisms, The Bardwell Press. pp. 325-335. 2015.
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436Explanatory GamesJournal of Philosophy 110 (11): 606-632. 2013.A philosophical theory of explanation should provide solutions to a series of problems, both descriptive and normative. The aim of this essay is to establish the claim that this can be best done if one theorizes in terms of explanatory games rather than focusing on the explication of the concept of explanation. The position that is adopted is that of an explanatory pluralism and it is elaborated in terms of the rules that incorporate the normative standards that guide the processes of discovery …Read more
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431The Ethical Project. A DialogueAnalyse & Kritik 34 (1): 21-38. 2012.In this dialogue the position of Pragmatic Naturalism as defended in Philip Kitcher’s The Ethical Project is presented and criticized. The approach is developed dialectically by the two interlocutors and a series of critical points are debated. The dialogical form is intended to honor the main objective in The Ethical Project: to establish an ongoing conversation on ways to improve moral conceptions and processes, which grow naturally out of the very conditions of human life
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386On the Legitimacy of InterventionJournal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 170 (1). 2014.
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386Comment on Nancy Cartwright's 'Against the System'In Christoph Engel Lorraine Daston (ed.), Is There Value in Inconsistency?, . pp. 57-62. 2006.
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323Zur Verteidigung des Institutionenökonomisch-Evolutionären WettberbsleitbildesORDO 58 157-166. 2007.Dieter Schmidtchen hat mein institutionenökonomisch-evolutionäres Wettbewerbsleitbild einer kritischen Würdigung unterzogen. In dieser Replik werden drei Arten von Argumenten zugunsten meines Wettbewerbsleitbildes vorgetragen. Zunächst wird mit Hilfe von wissenschaftstheoretischen Argumenten gezeigt, dass die Konkurrenz von Erkenntnisprogrammen auch im Fall der Wettbewerbstheorie durchaus wünscheswert ist. Dann werden die normativen Grundlagen des Leitbildes erläutert und gezeigt, wie das Prin…Read more
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311Apprentissage, Institutions, et Performance ÉconomiqueL'Année Sociologique 59 (2): 469-492. 2009.Dans cet article, nous offrons un large aperçu des interactions entre cognition, systèmes de croyances et institutions, et comment elles affectent la performance économique. Nous estimons qu'une meilleure compréhension de l’émergence des institutions, de leurs propriétés de fonctionnement et de leurs effets sur les résultats politiques et économiques doit commencer par une analyse des processus cognitifs. Nous explorons la nature de l'apprentissage individuel et collectif, en soulignant que la q…Read more
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304A Note on Methodological IndividualismIn Mohamed Cherkaoui Peter Hamilton (ed.), Raymond Boudon. A Life in Sociology, . pp. 211-215. 2009.
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303Science, institutions, and valuesEuropean Journal of Philosophy 29 (2): 379-392. 2020.This paper articulates and defends three interconnected claims: first, that the debate on the role of values for science misses a crucial dimension, the institutional one; second, that institutions occupy the intermediate level between scientific activities and values and that they are to be systematically integrated into the analysis; third, that the appraisal of the institutions of science with respect to values should be undertaken within the premises of a comparative approach rather than an…Read more
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297Das Institutionenökonomisch-Evolutionäre WettbewerbsleitbildJahrbücher für Nationalökonomie Und Statistik 225 205-224. 2005.In diesem Aufsatz wird ein Wettbewerbsleitbild vorgeschlagen, das auf den Ergebnissen der Neuen Institutionenökonomik und der Evolutorischen Ökonomik aufbaut. Um ein Leitbild zu gewinnen, braucht man zweierlei, d.h. erfahrungswissenschaftliche Grundlagen und Überlegungen zur Behandlung von Normen. Es werden zunächst die erfahrungswissenschaftlichen Grundlagen erläutert und es stellt sich heraus, dass der Wettbewerb als ein evolutionärer Prozess zu analysieren ist, der innerhalb von Regeln abläuf…Read more
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293The Role of Definitions in Institutional AnalysisIn Frank Daumann, C. Mantzavinos & Stefan Okruch (eds.), Wettbewerb im Gesundheitswesen. Konzeptionen und Felder ordnungsökonomischen Denkens, . pp. 85-92. 2006.This paper defends the claim that social scientists who are interested in the study of institutions should not conduct fights about the meaning of the terms "institution", "organization" and the other terms that are used in the theory of institutions. They should instead concentrate on constructing theories in order to explain the phenomena they are interested in. Defining the terms that one wants to use is a legitimate part of the theoretical endeavor, but it is by no means as important as most…Read more
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293Beyond Homo Oeconomicus and Homo SociologicusIn Raymond Boudon Cherkaoui Mohamed (ed.), The European Tradition in Qualitative Research, . pp. 421-426. 2003.
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272Der Beitrag Erich HoppmannsIn Viktor Vanberg (ed.), Evolution und Freiheitlicher Wettbewerb. Erich Hoppmann und die aktuelle Diskussion, . pp. 23-33. 2010.Das Werk Erich Hoppmanns wird durch drei Ideen geleitet. Erstens, eine Idee ontologischer Natur, dass der Markt ein komplexes Phänomen ist. Zweitens, eine Idee methodologischer Natur, dass der Markt mittels einer Systembetrachtung analysiert werden soll und nur Erklärungen des Prinzips möglich sind. Drittens, eine Idee normativer Natur, dass die Steuerung des Marktes mittels Regeln erfolgen soll, die gemäß dem regulativen Ideal der Freiheit konzipiert werden müssen.
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246Lernen, Institutionen und WirtschaftsleistungAnalyse & Kritik 27 (2): 320-337. 2005.This article provides a broad overview of the interplay among cognition, belief systems and institutions, fleshing out a position best characterized as 'cognitive institutionalism'. We argue that a deeper understanding of institutions, emergence, their working properties and their effect on economic performance should start with the analysis of cognitive processes. Exploring the nature of individual and collective learning the article suggests that the issue is not whether agents are perfectly o…Read more
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237Comment on Ekkehart Schlicht's 'Aestheticism in the Theory of Custom'Journal des Economistes Et des Etudes Humaines 11 (4): 705-708. 2001.
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236InstitutionsIn Ian Jarvie Jesús Zamora-Bonilla (ed.), The SAGE Handbook of the Philosophy of Science, . pp. 399-412. 2011.The article provides an overview of the basic concepts and principles of the theory of institutions as well as of the mechanisms of emergence and evolution of social institutions. It introduces a distinction between formal and informal institutions based on the the criterion of the enforcement agency of institutions. Finally it discusses the problem of path dependence.
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235Interpreting the Rules of the GameIn Christoph Engel Firtz Strack (ed.), The Impact of Court Procedure on the Psychology of Judicial Decision-Making, Nomos. pp. 16-30. 2007.After providing a brief overview of the economic theory of judicial decisions this paper presents an argument for why not only the economic theory of judicial decisions, but also the rational approach in general, most often fails in explaining decision-making. Work done within the research program of New Institutionalism is presented as a possible alternative. Within this research program judicial activity is conceptualized as the activity of "interpreting the rules of the game", i.e. the instit…Read more
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217Kommentar zu Herrmann Sauter, Menschenrechte und Menschenrechtsstandards im GlobalisierungsprozessJahrbuch für Neue Politische Ökonomie 19 277-279. 2000.
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209A Dialogue on UnderstandingPhilosophy of the Social Sciences 49 (4): 307-322. 2019.This paper written as a dialogue between two interlocutors, Julie and a Student, deals with Understanding and its role in the social sciences. The fictional dialogue takes place in Hannover, Germany, and the interlocutors are exchanging arguments about Verstehen and how it should be conceptualized in the philosophy of the social sciences. A range of different approaches is discussed and a naturalistic strategy emerges as a defensible alternative.
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205Föderalismus und Individuelle FreiheitIn Harald Enke Adolf Wagner (ed.), Zur Zukunft des Wettbewerbs, . pp. 15-37. 2012.Dieser Aufsatz untersucht das Verhältnis zwischen Föderalismus und individueller Freiheit. Es wird gezeigt, dass eine vollständige Analyse des Verhältnisses zwischen Föderalismus und individueller Freiheit zwei entgegengesetzte Effekte mitberücksichtigen muss. Auf der einen Seite verstärken föderalistische Strukturen die individuelle Freiheit indem sie die Auswahlmöglichkeiten der Bürger erweitern. Auf der anderen Seite führt jedoch ein föderalistisches System zur institutionellen Vielfalt, ein …Read more
University Tübingen
PhD, 1992
Areas of Specialization
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |
Value Theory |
Philosophical Traditions |
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
Areas of Interest
Metaphysics and Epistemology |