I teach at the University of California, Irvine, where I’m Chancellor’s Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science. I grew up in Austria and  received my doctorate in philosophy from the University of Salzburg in 2006. Before joining UC Irvine in 2008, I spent two years as a postdoc at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research near Vienna. I am a co-editor of The Review of Symbolic Logic. For more information see my CV.

Research

I’m interested in game and decision theory, philosophy of science, the foundations of probability, the theory of measurement, and the philosophy of biology.

My book The Probabilistic Foundations of Rational Learning was published in 2017.

Here you can download most of my publications:

Superconditioning, Philosophical Studies (accepted for publication)

Reconciling Causal and Evidential Decision Theory, Philosopher’s Imprint 23:20 (2023)

Rethinking Convergence to the Truth,The Journal of Philosophy 119: 380–403 (2022)

Structural Stability in Causal Decision Theory, Erkenntnis 87: 603–621  (2022; with Greg Lauro)

Invariance and Symmetry in Evolutionary Dynamics, American Philosophical Quarterly 58:63-78 (2021; with Hannah Rubin and Kevin Zollman)

Bradley Conditionals and Dynamic Choice, Synthese 199: 6585-6599 (2021; with Gerard Rothfus)

Signals Without Teleology, Studies in History and Philosophy Science Part C 84: 101310 (2021; with Carl Bergstrom and Kevin Zollman)

Communication Without Common Interest: A Signaling Experiment, Studies in History and Philosophy Science Part C 83: 101295 (2021; with Hannah Rubin, Justin Bruner, and Cailin O’Connor)

Generalized Learning and Conditional Expectation, Philosophy of Science 87: 868–883 (2020; with Michael Nielsen)

Quantum Randomness and Underdetermination, Philosophy of Science 87: 391-408 (2020; with Jeff Barrett)

Analogical Predictive Probabilities, Mind 128: 1-37 (2019)

David Lewis in the Lab: Experimental Results on the Emergence of Meaning, Synthese 195: 603-621 (2018; with J. Bruner, C. O’Connor and H. Rubin)

Inductive Learning in Small and Large Worlds, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 95: 90-116 (2017)

The Robustness of Hybrid Equilibria in Costly Signaling Games, Dynamic Games and Applications 6: 347-358 (2016; with K. Zollman)

Cliff Edge Model of Obstetric Selection in Humans, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 113: 14680-14685 (2016; with P. Mitteroecker, B. Fischer, M. Pavlicev)

Merging of Opinions and Probability Kinematics, Review of Symbolic Logic 8: 611-648 (2015)

Bayesian Convergence to the Truth and the Metaphysics of Possible Worlds, Philosophy of Science 82: 587–601 (2015)

The Handicap Principle is an Artifact, Philosophy of Science 82:997-1009 (2015; with J. Bruner and K. Zollman)

Selection-Mutation Dynamics of Signaling Games, Games 6:2-31 (2015; with J. Hofbauer)

Learning Experiences and the Value of Knowledge, Philosophical Studies 171:279-288 (2014)

Some Dynamics of Signaling Games, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 111:10873–10880 (2014; with B. Skyrms, E. Wagner, and P. Tarrés)

Probe and Adjust in Information Transfer Games, Erkenntnis 79: 835–853 (2014; with B. Skyrms and K. Zollman)

In Defense of Reflection, Philosophy of Science 80: 413-433 (2013)

Between Cheap and Costly Signals: The Evolution of Partially Honest Communication,  Proceedings of the Royal Society London B 280: 20121878 (2013; with K. Zollman and C. Bergstrom)

Methodology in Biological Game Theory, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 64:637-658 (2013; with K. Zollman)

Evolution, Dynamics, and Rationality: The Limits of ESS Methodology. In: Evolution and Rationality: Decisions, Co-operation, and Strategic Behaviour, edited by Ken Binmore and Samir Okasha. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 67-83 (2012; with K. Zollman)

Invariance and Meaningfulness in Phenotype Spaces, Evolutionary Biology 38: 335-351(2011; with P. Mitteroecker)

Efficient Social Contracts and Group Selection, Biology and Philosophy 26: 517-531(2011; with R. Smead)

Dynamic Stability and Basins of Attraction in the Sir Philip Sidney Game,  Proceedings of the Royal Society London B 277: 1915-1922 (2010; with K. Zollman)

Generic Properties of Evolutionary Games and Adaptationism, The Journal of Philosophy 107: 80-102 (2010)

Evolutionary Dynamics of Lewis Signaling Games, Synthese 172: 177-191 (2010; with B. Skyrms, R. Smead, K. Zollman)

The Concept of Morphospace in Evolutionary and Developmental Biology, Biological Theory 4: 54-67 (2009; with P. Mitteroecker)

Feasibility of Information Transfer in Binary Signaling Games, Journal of Theoretical Biology 254: 843-849 (2008; with J. Hofbauer)

Emergence of Information Transfer by Inductive Learning, Studia Logica 89: 237-256 (2008; with B. Skyrms)

Evolutionary Explanations of Indicatives and Imperatives, Erkenntnis 66: 409-436 (2007)

Evolution and the Explanation of Meaning, Philosophy of Science 74: 1-27 (2007)

 

Teaching

Undergraduate level: I teach classes on logic, inductive logic,  Bayesian epistemology, philosophy of biology, philosophy of economics, decision theory, set theory, and evolutionary game theory.

Master level: I teach in the core sequence of UCI’s MA program in PPE (Philosophy, Political Science, and Economics).

Graduate Level: I have taught graduate seminars on topics in game theory, chance, probability and randomness, Carnap’s inductive logic, the philosophy of probability, and philosophy of economics.