Research Position in Philosophy, Economics or Mathematics (f/m/d)

(either full-time or part-time 65%, E 13 TV-L)

Job Offer No. 2021/028. The start date is July 1, 2020 or by agreement. The position is available initially for two years (full-time) or three years (part-time). In principle, a full-time position can be divided into two part-time positions. An extension is possible.

The University of Konstanz is one of eleven Universities of Excellence in Germany. Since 2007 it has been successful in the German Excellence Initiative and its follow-up programme, the Excellence Strategy.

The Koselleck project “Reflexive Decision and Game Theory” of Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Spohn, funded by the German Research Foundation, is about the following issues: The paradigm of homo oeconomicus, as explicated in modern decision and game theory, shapes extensive parts of our social sciences. These theories count as delivering a basically complete normative ideal and hence serve as the critical reference point of behavioral, psycho-, and neuroeconomics, which attempt to overcome their empirical deficiencies. In contrast to this mainstream, the present project takes game and decision theory to be normatively deficient and thus attempts to improve the normative ideal of a homo oeconomicus and thereby shift the point of attack of empirical criticism. The project does so by rigorously theorizing ‘reflexive ascent’. According to it, an agent considers not only her possible actions and their possible consequences, but also her possible (future) decision situations, which entail those actions. This will provide a systematization of so-called dynamic choice, a systematic treatment of (pre-)commitment and self-binding, and in particular a new fundamental equilibrium concept for game theory, which promises a novel treatment of cooperation and indeed a unification of non-cooperative and cooperative game theory. A more extensive description of the project is found at: https://www.philosophie.uni-konstanz.de/ag-spohn/personen/prof-dr-wolfgang-spohn/ .

More detailed information is available from Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Spohn: wolfgang.spohn@uni-konstanz.de.

We look forward to receiving your application with the usual documents (a CV, a letter of motivation, a list of publications, possibly a writing sample and a list of courses taught, and copies of academic degrees in a pdf-file) until 24 March 2021 via our Online Application Portal.