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11373A Conversation with Daniel KahnemanIn Catherine Herfeld (ed.), Conversations on Rational Choice, Cambridge University Press. forthcoming.
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168Model Transfer in ScienceIn Tarja Knuuttila, Natalia Carrillo & Rami Koskinen (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Scientific Modeling, Routledge. 2024.A conspicuous feature of contemporary modelling practices is the use of the same mathematical forms and modelling methods across different scientific domains. This model transfer raises many philosophical questions concerning, for example, the exact object of transfer, the relationship between the model and the target domain, the specific challenges such transfer confronts, and the ways in which model transfer relates to scientific progress. While the interest in studying model transfer has incr…Read more
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5New Scope, New Sources, New Methods? An Essay on Contemporary Scholarship in History of Economic Thought Journals, 2016-2017History of Economic Ideas 27 (2). 2019.This survey gives an overview of a set of selected articles published between 2016 and 2017 in the major journals that cover the history of economic thought. In surveying the literature, we focus on three major aspects – the scope, the sources, and the methods – with reference to which we discuss the novelties that we find in the recent literature on the history of economic thought.
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10Social network analysis: A complementary method of discovery for the history of economicsIn François Claveau, Catherine Herfeld, E. Roy Weintraub & Till Düppe (eds.), Claveau, François; Herfeld, Catherine (2018). Social network analysis: A complementary method of discovery for the history of economics. In: Weintraub, E Roy; Düppe, Till. A contemporary historiography of economics. London: Routledge, n/a, . 2018.
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20The soul of economics: editorialJournal of Economic Methodology 30 (2): 71-79. 2023.The Financial Crisis of 2007–2009 has been one of the worst economic crises since the Great Depression of the 1930s. In addition to directly impacting the economy, it had substantial ramifications...
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49Concept formation has recently become a widely discussed topic in philosophy under the headings of “conceptual engineering”, “conceptual ethics”, and “ameliorative analysis”. Much of this work has been inspired either by the method of explication or by ameliorative projects. In the former case, concept formation is usually seen as a tool of the sciences, of formal disciplines, and of philosophy. In the latter case, concept formation is seen as a tool in the service of social progress. While rece…Read more
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7Philosophie der PolitikwissenschaftIn Simon Lohse & Thomas Reydon (eds.), Grundriss Wissenschaftsphilosophie. Die Philosophien der Einzelwissenschaften, Meiner. pp. 615-650. 2017.
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8Wirtschaftstheorie und Wissen - Aufsätze zur Erkenntnis- und Wissenschaftslehre von Friedrich August von Hayek (review)ORDO 59 (1): 523-528. 2008.
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16Why Do Women Philosophy Students Drop Out of Philosophy? Some Evidence from the Classroom at the Bachelor’s LevelErgo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 8 (n/a). 2021.It is well known that there has been a steady and significant underrepresentation of women in philosophy on different professional levels. Numerous hypotheses explaining this underrepresentation have been suggested, but empirical analyses are not yet extensive. In particular, studies of the phenomenon in different countries are nonexistent. In this paper, we present findings from an exploratory study in which we analyze the interests, abilities, beliefs, attitudes, perceptions, and goals of bach…Read more
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9Social network analysis: A complementary method of discovery for the history of economicsIn Till Düppe & E. Roy Weintraub (eds.), A Contemporary Historiography of Economics, Routledge. pp. 75-99. 2018.In this chapter, we discuss social network analysis as a method for the history of economics. We argue that social network analysis is not primarily a method of data representation but foremost a method of discovery and confirmation. It is as such a promising method that should be added to the toolbox of the historian of economics. We furthermore argue that, to be meaningfully applied in history, social network analysis must be complemented with historical knowledge gained by other means and oft…Read more
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12What We Learn and Do Not Learn from Ivan Moscati’s Historical Account of Utility Measurement (review)Economics and Philosophy 37 (1): 144-150. 2019.
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8Verbindlichkeit – Eine kritisch-realistische Bestimmung der Erkenntnis und des Wesens der Gesellschaft (review)ORDO 60 (1): 554-558. 2009.
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10Network Analysis in the History of EconomicsHistory of Political Economy 50 (3). 2018.We present social network analysis as a complement to other methods in the history of economics. We first discuss why social network analysis is especially promising for the study of the history of recent economics. We then use an example of research using it to highlight some of its characteristics.
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10Spielarten der Theorie rationalen EntscheidensIn Andreas Tutić (ed.), Rational Choice, De Gruyter. pp. 59-86. 2020.
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264The Role of Narratives in Transferring Rational Choice Models into Political ScienceHistory of Political Economy. forthcoming.One striking observation in the history of rational choice models is that those models have not only been used in economics but spread widely across the social and behavioral sciences. How do such model transfers proceed? By closely studying the early efforts to transfer such models by William Riker – a major protagonist in pushing the adoption of game theoretic models in political science – this article examines the transfer process as one of ‘translation’ by which abstract and mathematical rat…Read more
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236How Academic Opinion Leaders Shape Scientific Ideas: An Acknowledgment AnalysisScientometrics. forthcoming.In this paper, we examine how a research institution’s social structure and academic opinion leaders’ presence shaped the early adoption of a scientific innovation. Our case considers the early engagement of mathematical economists at the Cowles Commission with John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern’s Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. We argue that scholars with administrative leadership functions who were not only scientifically but also organizationally central – in our case the director …Read more
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32Rational choice explanations in political scienceIn Harold Kincaid & Jeroen van Bouwel (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Political Science, Oxford University Press. 2023.In this chapter, it is described and assessed how political scientists use rational choice theories to offer causal explanations. We observe that the ways in which rational choice theories are considered to be successful in political science differs, depending on the explanandum in question. Political scientists use empirical variants of rational choice theories to explain the political behavior of individual agents and analytical variants to explain the behavior of collective actors. Both varia…Read more
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23Progress in economicsIn Yafeng Shan (ed.), New Philosophical Perspectives on Scientific Progress, Routledge. pp. 224-244. 2022.In this chapter, we discuss a specific kind of progress in economics, namely, progress that is pushed by the repeated use of mathematical models in most sub-branches of economics today. We adopt a functional account of progress to argue that progress in economics occurs via the use of what we call ‘common recipes’ and the use of model templates to define and solve problems of relevance for economists. We support our argument by discussing the case of twentieth-century business cycle research. By…Read more
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45Knowledge transfer and its contextsStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 77 1-10. 2019.Knowledge transfer across different contexts has become an increasingly prevalent feature of current science. As such, it is a relevant topic also for history and philosophy of science. This special issue presents a set of papers that study knowledge transfer in various disciplines. The contributions approach the topic from either an integrated history and philosophy of science perspective, 2) a systematic philosophical perspective, or 3) a historical perspective. This overview article is organi…Read more
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204Progress in EconomicsIn Yafeng Shan (ed.), New Philosophical Perspectives on Scientific Progress, Routledge. 2022.In this chapter, we discuss a specific kind of progress that occurs in most branches of economics today: progress involving the repeated use of mathematical models. We adopt a functional account of progress to argue that progress in economics occurs through the use of what we call “common recipes” and model templates for defining and solving problems of relevance for economists. We support our argument by discussing the case of 20th century business cycle research. By presenting this case study …Read more
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60Revisiting the criticisms of rational choice theoriesPhilosophy Compass 17 (1). 2021.Theories of rational choice are arguably the most prominent approaches to human behaviour in the social and behavioral sciences. At the same time, they have faced persistent criticism. In this paper, I revisit some of the core criticisms that have for a long time been levelled against them and discuss to what extent those criticisms are still effective, not only in light of recent advancements in the literature but also of the fact that there are different variants of rational choice theories th…Read more
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48Thick Concepts in Economics: The Case of Becker and Murphy’s Theory of Rational AddictionPhilosophy of the Social Sciences 51 (4): 371-399. 2021.In this paper, we examine the viability of avoiding value judgments encoded in thick concepts when these concepts are used in economic theories. We focus on what implications the use of such thick concepts might have for the tenability of the fact/value dichotomy in economics. Thick concepts have an evaluative and a descriptive component. Our suggestion is that despite attempts to rid thick concepts of their evaluative component, economists are often not successful. We focus on the strategy of e…Read more
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40Introduction: first principles in science—their status and justificationSynthese 198 (Suppl 14): 3297-3308. 2020.
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46Measuring Utility: From the Marginal Revolution to Behavioral Economics, Ivan Moscati. Oxford University Press, 2019, vii + 326 pages (review)Economics and Philosophy 37 (1): 144-150. 2021.
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30Understanding the rationality principle in economics as a functional a priori principleSynthese 198 (Suppl 14): 3329-3358. 2020.Since the early days of economics, the rationality principle has been a core element of economic theorizing. It is part of almost any theoretical framework that economists use to generate knowledge. Despite its central role, the principle’s epistemic status and function continue to be debated between empiricists and rationalists, and a clear winner is yet to emerge. One point of contention is that we cannot explain the principle’s special status in light of clear evidence against its empirical v…Read more
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100The Diversity of Rational Choice Theory: A Review NoteTopoi 39 (2): 329-347. 2020.In this paper, I review the literature on rational choice theory to scrutinize a number of criticisms that philosophers have voiced against its usefulness in economics. The paper has three goals: first, I argue that the debates about RCT have been characterized by disunity and confusion about the object under scrutiny, which calls into question the effectiveness of those criticisms. Second, I argue that RCT is not a single and unified choice theory—let alone an empirical theory of human behavior…Read more
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Ludwig-Maximilians-University MunichMunich Center For Mathematical PhilosophyResearcher
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George Mason UniversityPolitics, and Economics At The Mercatus CenterResearch Affiliate (Part-time)
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Ludwig Maximilians Universität, MünchenMunich Centre for Mathematical PhilosophyExternal Member (Part-time)
Witten/Herdecke University
Alumnus, 2013
Hannover, NDS, Germany
Areas of Specialization
1 more
Philosophy of Economics |
History of Economics |
Methodology of Economics |
Philosophy of Social Science |
Sociology of Science |
Philosophy of Sociology |