Research Associates are scholars from within LSE and from other institutions worldwide who, over the years, have made significant contributions to the achievements of the Centre.
Centre Research Associates (in Residence)
Centre Research Associates (outside LSE)
Oliver Curry is a post-doctoral researcher in the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford, and a Research Associate in the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science at the London School of Economics. Oliver completed his Ph.D. in 2005 in the Department of Government at LSE. His thesis argued that morality could be seen as the product of a suite of 'adaptations for cooperation' that evolved to solve the problems of cooperation and conflict recurrent in the lives of our ancestors. He is currently engaged in a number of empirical projects testing evolutionary theories of human social behaviour, including work on trust, fairness and coalition formation. (For more information, see: www.olivercurry.com|.)
Project: The Evolution of Human Moral Sentiments|
Contact details: email|
Tom Dickins is a Reader in Evolutionary Psychology at the University of East London. Tom has published on the evolution of language, evolutionary constraints on cognitive architecture, sexual orientation and aggression, fertility scheduling in humans and theoretical aspects of the human evolutionary behavioural sciences. His initial project in the Centre was on information, inheritance and evolution. This resulted in a number of publications. Now, in a continuation of the initial project, he is working on issues around epigenetic inheritance and niche construction. As a part of his role at CPNSS Tom convenes the Work in Progress Group every Monday evening in term time. This group consists of evolutionary behavioural scientists from around London who meet to discuss core theoretical aspects of their work.
Project: Misconceptions in the Human Evolutionary Behavioural Sciences|
Contact details: t.dickins@uel.ac.uk|; t.dickins@lse.ac.uk|
Website: http://dissentwithmodification.com |
Philippe Fontaine is Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics and Management at the École normale supérieure de Cachan and a Senior Fellow of the Institut universitaire de France. He was in the Philosophy Department at LSE as Ludwig Lachmann Research Fellow from 2003 to 2005. He is currently a Research Associate at the Centre for the Philosophy of Natural and Social Science. His principal research interest is the history of postwar social science (especially economics, sociology and political science). His publications include The History of the Social Sciences since 1945 (2010) and The Unsocial Social Science? Economics and Neighboring Disciplines since 1945, both co-edited with Roger Backhouse. In 2010-2011, together with Roger Backhouse, he will be organising a seminar series on the history of post-war social science and working of cross-disciplinary research ventures in American research universities since 1945. He also is convenor for the:
Jeremy Hardie was until 1975 an academic economist, and then until 1999 in business and public life in a variety of companies and institutions in Britain. He is now a Research Associate at the CPNSS. Drawing on his experience outside academia his research concentrates on the relationship between rationalist theories of deciding, and the role of intuition, judgment, expertise and emotion. This work spans theories of practical reason, the insights of experimental psychology, and the practicalities of decision making in business and government. Its main focus is on the conflict between the need for accountability and transparency in public life and the complexity of how decisions are made, which cannot be reduced even ex post facto to the operation of systematic, explicit, rational procedures.
Project: Rationality, Transparency and Accountability|
Contact details: email|
John Pemberton is a research associate at the CPNSS whose current work focuses on powers, change and causation - mostly in collaboration with Nancy Cartwright. John has extensive commercial experience in actuarial science, investment analysis, business strategy and company management. An outline of his current research and recent papers is available on: John Pemberton's homepage |
Contact: email|
John Skoyles is an evolutionary psychologist with both neuroscience (UCL) and philosophy (LSE) backgrounds. These interests were brought together in a book recently published by McGraw-Hill (2002): Up From Dragons: the evolution of human intelligence. Recently with Prof Nicholas Humphrey he has researched a family of five adult human quadrupeds. He is presently reviewing the role of balance in the human evolution of bipedality and the role of pathological conditions in paleaoanthropolgical science. Among, other scientific projects, he is also developing a theory of nonHamiltonian spite, and a new theory of pathogen detecting in the gut among. He also has a interest in methodological and is working upon the implications of the rules and practice distinction for the application of Bayesian logic to the rational theory choices of working scientists.
Project: Human Evolution and Methodology|
Contact details: Room LAK G.01 (Lakatos Building), 020 7955 6304, email|
Peter Sozou works mostly in theoretical biology. Much of his work has a close connection to economic theory. His recent work includes problems concerned with discounting the future, ageing, and signalling in courtship.
More information: Personal Webpage|
Contact details: Room KGS 2.02 (Kings Cambers), 020 7955-7085 email|
Max Steuer is a founding member of the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science. He is the editor of the LSE Philosopher Papers Series, which has replaced the Centre Discussion Paper Series. The prior series consisted of over eighty publications. He currently is Reader Emeritus and joined the Economics Department at the London School of Economics in 1959. His publications include Mathematical Sociology (with Janet Holland), The Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on the United Kingdom (Steuer et.al.) and The Scientific Study of Society. His current research interests are in the privatisation of United Kingdom Air Traffic Control, and in the methodology of practicing economists. He is a regular participant in the Centre's 'Work in Progress' group studying aspects of evolutionary theory. He teaches on the M.Sc. Economics and Philosophy.
Project: The Role of Assumptions in Scientific Investigation|
More information: LSE Experts|
Contact details: Room LAK 5.02 (Lakatos Building), 020 7955 7521, email|
Philip Thonemann is a physics teacher at Mill Hill School, in North London, and a part-time philosopher of science. His academic background includes Physics and Philosophy at Oxford, and postgraduate work at University College, London.
He is currently working, very slowly, to raise the profile of Modest Scientific Realism, an unexciting but plausible view which has lurked in the literature for many years. As a longstanding member of the Wittgenstein reading group he is producing expository and critical notes on the Philosophical Investigations. Most importantly, he is the convenor of the famous Centre Tea, which is currently at 4:00 every Wednesday.
Project: Formal Methods in Philosophy
More information: Personal homepage|
Contact details: Room LAK G.01 (Lakatos Building), email|
Arhat Virdi's doctoral thesis is on the concept of truth, supervised by Professor Colin Howson. His research interests lie in philosophical logic, the philosophy of science and analytic philosophy generally. He teaches in various areas for the departments of Philosophy, Economics and Management. He did his MSc (Philosophy) at LSE and BA (P.P.E.) at Oxford. He currently holds a research fellowship with the University of Bielefeld examining general equilibrium theory, the logical structure of models based on it (in particular computable models), the models' relation to the background theory and their use in economic policy advice.
Project: Application Dominance in Economics|
Contact details: Room LAK G.01 (Lakatos Building), 0207 955 6196, email|
George Zouros
George received his BSc in Physics and MSc in Theoretical Physics from the University of London (Queen Mary College and Imperial College). He has recently completed his PhD thesis at the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method here at the London School of economics. George's research concentrates on the philosophical foundations of quantum mechanics. He is particularly interested in the resolutions of the paradoxes associated with the theory. His main focus is on the Popper experiment, a variant of the EPR thought experiment.
Project: Popper's Experiment and Quantum Mechanics: Philosophical Aspects|
Contact details: Room LAK G.01, Lakatos Building, 020 7955 6170, email|
Abell, Peter| - Sociology
Alpern, Steve| - Mathematics
Charvet, John CR| - Government
Desai, Meghnad (Lord) - Economics
Dietrich, Franz| - Economics, University of East Anglia
Howard, John| - Operational Research Department
Howson, Colin| - Philosophy
Krombach, Hayo| - International Relations
Moore, Henrietta| - Anthropology
Morgan, Mary S| - Economic History
Power, Michael| - Accounting and Finance
Wells, Andrew J| - Social Psychology
Addis, Mark| - Philosophy, Birminghan
Anand, Paul - Economics, Open University
Andler, Daniel
Backhouse, Roger| - Economics, Birmingham University
Berkovitz, Joseph| - Philosophy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Ken Binmore - Economics, University College London
Bishop, Robert - Philosophy, University of Konstanz
Boumans, Marcel - Economics, University of Amsterdam
Butterfield, Jeremy - All Souls College, Oxford
Cat, Jordi| - History and Philosophy of Science, Indiana University
Chang, Hasok| - History and Philosophy of Science, University College London
Coombes, Paul
Debs, Talal - CPNSS
Denis, Andy| - Economics, City University, London
Dickins, Tom| - University of East London
Díez Calzada, José Antonio - Universidad Rovira I Virgili', Tarragona, Spain
Dupré, John| - Philosophy, University of Exeter
Felsenthal, Dan - Political Science, University of Haifa
Fennell, Damien
Guala, Francesco| - Sociology, University of Exeter
Hardie, Jeremy|
Kaiser, Mathias - National Committee for Research Ethics in Science and Technology (NENT), Norway
Leech, Dennis| - Economics, University of Warwick
Massimi, Michela| - Philosophy, University College London
Philippe Mongin - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique & Ecole Polytechnique
Morrison, Margaret - Philosophy, University of Toronto
Moscati, Ivan
Mosini, Valeria| - Chemistry, University of Rome and CPNSS
Northcott, Robert| - Philosophy, University of Missouri, St. Louis
O'Hear, Anthony| - Philosophy, University of Bradford
Psillos, Stathis - Philosophy, University of Athens
Salles, Maurice - University of Caen
Sear, Rebecca| - Anthropology, University of Durham
Shomar, Towfic| - Philosophy, Philadelphia University, Jordan
Sober, Elliott| - Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Sozou, Peter| - CoMPLEX, UCL
Suarez, Mauricio| - Complutense University of Madrid
Thomson-Jones, Martin| - Philosophy, Oberlin College
Tuomela, Raimo| - Philosophy, University of Helsinki
Webb, Richard - Zoologist, London