Positions
Prof. Dr. Catherine Herfeld
Prof. Dr. Catherine Herfeld
Phone
Address
Lange Laube 6
30159 Hannover
30159 Hannover
Building
Room
Prof. Dr. Catherine Herfeld
Representatives for professors
Examination Board Philosophy of Science (Master of Arts)
Deputy Representatives for Professors
Admissions Board Philosophy of Science (Master of Arts)
Professors
Institute of Philosophy
Profile
Catherine Herfeld studied economics and philosophy at the University of Heidelberg, the Technical University of Berlin, and the London School of Economics and Political Science. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke University and at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP) at LMU Munich before taking up an assistant professorship in social theory and philosophy of the social sciences at the University of Zurich in 2017. Among other affiliations, she is an external member of the MCMP and of the University Research Priority Program on Equal Opportunity at the University of Zurich, an associate member of the Center for Higher Education and Science Studies (CHESS), and of the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. She is a board member of the International Network of Economic Methodology, the European Society for the History of Economic Thought, and a member of the Steering Committee of the European Philosophy of Science Association. She is also co-editor of the Journal of Economic Methodology and book review editor of the Journal of the History of Economic Thought, among her other duties.
As Principal Investigator of a European Union project funded by an ERC Starting Grant, Catherine Herfeld conducts research on model transfer and its challenges in science, particularly in economics. She is also interested in the history and methodology of economics, historical epistemology, and empirical research on causes of the gender gap in philosophy as a discipline. In her research, she uses a variety of methods from philosophy, sociology, and the history of science, such as traditional case study methodology, but also surveys via questionnaires, as well as interviews and computational methods such as network analysis. For her research, she won the Karl Heinz Hoffmann Prize by the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Joseph Dorfman Best Dissertation Prize by the History of Economics Society.
Catherine Herfeld has been Professor of Philosophy and History of Economics at LUH since 2023.
Main Areas of Research and Teaching
- Philosophy of Economics
- Economic Methodology
- History of Economics
- Philosophy of the Social Sciences
- Integrated History and Philosophy of Science
- Empirical Philosophy of Science
- Feminist Epistemology
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Publications
Books and Edited Volumes
Under contract | The Many Faces of Rational Choice Theory
(with Cambridge University Press)Forthcoming | Conversations on Rational Choice
(with Cambridge University Press)In progress | Special Issue on 'Quantitative and Computational Approaches in the Social Studies of Economics' (with Aurélien Goutsmedt and François Claveau)
Oeconomia - History, Methodology, Philosophy2023 | Special Issue on 'The Soul of Economics' ed. with Chiara Lisciandra and Carlo Martini
Journal of Economic Methodology2023 | Topical Collection on 'Concept Formation in the Natural and Social Sciences: Empirical and Normative Aspects' ed. with Georg Brun and Kevin Reuter
Synthese, 201, 89,. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-023-04094-62020 | Special Issue on ‘First Principles in Science: Their Epistemic Status and Justification,’ ed. with Milena Ivanova
Synthese, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-020-02801-12019 | Special Issue on ‘Knowledge Transfer and Its Contexts,’ ed. with Chiara Lisciandra
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 77, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2019.06.0022013 | The Many Faces of Rational Choice Theory (dissertation)
Witten/Herdecke University.Papers in Peer-reviewed Journals and Edited Volumes
Forthcoming | Model Transfer in Science
in Tarja Knuuttila, Natalia Carrillo, and Rami Koskinen (eds.) (forthcoming): The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Scientific Modeling, Routledge.Forthcoming | How Academic Opinion Leaders Shape Scientific Ideas: An Acknowledgement Analysis (with Malte Doehne),
ScientometricsForthcoming | The Role of Narratives in Transferring Rational Choice Models into Political Science (with Alexandra Quack)
History of Political Economy,
(part of the Special Issue on Narratives in the History of Economics, guest-edited by Mary Morgan and Tom Stapleford)2023 | Rational Choice Explanations in Political Science (with Johannes Marx)
in Harold Kincaid and Jeroen van Bouwel (Eds.): Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Political Science, Oxford: Oxford University Press2023 | Progress in Economics (with Marcel Boumans)
in Yafeng Shan (ed.): New Philosophical Perspectives on Scientific Progress, Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Science, New York and London: Routledge.2023 | Why Do Female Philosophy Students Drop Out of Philosophy? Some Evidence from the Classroom at the Bachelor’s Level (with Kathrin von Allmen and Jan Müller)
Ergo, an Open Access Journal of Philosophy (Penultimate version)2022 | Revisiting the Criticisms of Rational Choice Theories
Philosophy Compass, 17 (1), e12774; https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/phc3.127742021 | Thick Concepts in Economics: The Case of Becker and Murphy’s Theory of Rational Addiction (with Charles Djordjevic)
Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 51 (4), 371–399, https://doi.org/10.1177%2F004839312110085412020 | Understanding the Rationality Principle in Economics as a Functional A Priori Principle
Synthese, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-020-02730-z2020 | Introduction to the Special Issue: First Principles in Science: Their Status and Justification (with Milena Ivanova)
Synthese, 198, 3297–3308, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-020-02801-12020 | Spielarten der Rational Choice Theorie
in Andreas Tutic (Ed.): Rational Choice, Berlin: De Gruyter, 59–86, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110673616-0032020 | The Diversity of Rational Choice Theory: A Review Note
TOPOI - An International Review of Philosophy, 39, 329–347 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-018-9588-7
(part of the Special Issue entitled: New Trends in Rational Choice Theory, edited by Cédric Paternotte)2019 | Knowledge Transfer and Its Contexts: Editorial (with Chiara Lisciandra)
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 77, 1-10, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2019.06.002
(part of the Special Issue on Knowledge Transfer and Its Contexts)2019 | What We Learn and Do Not Learn from Ivan Moscati’s Historical Account of Utility Measurement
Oeconomia - History, Methodology, Philosophy, 9 (1), 93-108, https://doi.org/10.4000/oeconomia.5083
(part of the Symposium on Ivan Moscati's: Measuring Utility: From the Marginalist Revolution to Behavioral Economics, Oxford University Press)2019 | New Scope, New Sources, New Methods? An Essay of Contemporary Scholarship in History of Economic Thought Journals, 2016-2017 (with Cléo Chassonnery-Zaïgouche and Erich Pinzon Fuchs)
History of Economic Ideas, XXVII (2), 121-161, https://doi.org/10.19272/2019061020052019 | Imagination Rather Than Observation in Econometrics: Ragnar Frisch's Hypothetical Experiments as Thought Experiments
HOPOS - The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science, 9 (1), 35-74, https://doi.org/10.1086/7001972019 | The Diffusion of Scientific Innovations: A Role Typology (with Malte Doehne)
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science: Part A, 77, 64-80, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2017.12.001
(part of the Special Issue on Knowledge Transfer and Its Contexts)2018 | Five Reasons for the Use of Network Analysis in History of Economics (with Malte Doehne)
Journal of Economic Methodology, 25 (4), 311-328, https://doi.org/10.1080/1350178X.2018.1529172
(part of the Special Issue entitled: Not Everything that can be Counted Counts: Historiographic Reflections on Quantifying Economics, edited by José Edwards, Yann Giraud, Christophe Schinckus)2018 | The Diffusion of Scientific Innovations: Arguments for an Integrated Approach (with Malte Doehne)
Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences, https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118900772.etrds04622018 | Social Network Analysis: A Complementary Method of Discovery for the History of Economics (with François Claveau)
in E. Roy Weintraub and Till Düppe (Eds.): A Contemporary Historiography of Economics, Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315169194-62018 | Explaining Patterns, Not Details: Reevaluating Rational Choice Models in Light of Their Explananda
Journal of Economic Methodology, 25 (2), 179-209, https://doi.org/10.1080/1350178X.2018.14278822018 | From Theories of Human Behavior to Rules of Rational Choice: Tracing a Normative Turn at the Cowles Commission, 1943-1954
History of Political Economy, 50 (1), 1-48, https://doi.org/10.1080/09672567.2017.13859842018 | Network Analysis in the History of Economics (with François Claveau)
History of Political Economy, 50 (3), 597-603, https://doi.org/10.1215/00182702-70235422017 | Between Mathematical Formalism, Normative Choice Rules, and the Behavioural Sciences: The Emergence of Rational Choice Theories in the late 1940s and early 1950s
European Journal for the History of Economic Thought, 24 (6), 1277-1317. https://doi.org/10.1080/09672567.2017.13859842017 | Philosophie der Politikwissenschaft
in Simon Lohse and Thomas Reydon (Eds.): Grundriss Wissenschaftsphilosophie: Die Philosophie der Einzelwissenschaften, Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag, 615-650, https://doi.org/10.28937/978-3-7873-2987-82013 | The Importance of Commitment for Morality: How Frankfurt Can Enrich Economic Models (with Katrien Schaubroeck)
in Bert Musschenga and Anton van Harskamp (Eds.): What Makes Us Moral: On the Capacities and Conditions for Being Moral, Springer Publishers, 51-72, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6343-2_42009 | The Motive of Commitment and Its Implications for Rational Choice Theory
Analyse & Kritik 31 (2), pp. 291-317, http://www.analyse-und-kritik.net/Dateien/56c1ae6114223_ak_herfeld_2009.pdf2009 | How Good are the Economists’ Explanations of Cooperation?
Conference Proceedings, European Consortium for Political Research Lisbon, https://ecpr.eu/Filestore/PaperProposal/2d60c982-1017-412b-a72a-581a0bd37565.pdf2008 | Role of Normativity for the Explanation of Norm-Conformity
Conference Proceedings, Graduate Conference on Normativity of the University of Amsterdam, https:/www.researchgate.net/publication/2549195422007 | How to Cope with New Problems of Collective Action? A Need to Extend Individualism with a Theory of Systems
McGill Undergraduate Journal of Development Economics, 1 (1), 27-38.Interviews
2016 | The World in Axioms: An Interview with Patrick Suppes
Journal of Economic Methodology, 23 (3), 333-346, https://doi.org/10.1080/1350178X.2016.11891262014 | Rational Choice as a Toolbox for the Economist: An Interview with Itzhak Gilboa
Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics, 7 (2), 116-141, https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v7i2.1762012 | The Potentials and Limitations of Rational Choice Theory: An Interview with Gary Becker
Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics, 5 (1), 73-86, https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v5i1.101Book Reviews
2020 | Review of Ivan Moscati (2019): Measuring Utility: From the Marginal Revolution to Behavioral Economics. Oxford University Press
Economics & Philosophy, 1-6, https://doi.org/10.1017/S026626712000019X2018 | Review of Julie Zahle and Finn Collin (Eds.) (2014): Rethinking the Individualism-Holism Debate: Essays in the Philosophy of Social Science. Springer
Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 48 (2), 247-261, https://doi.org/10.1177/00483931177334192018 | Review of Brian Epstein (2015): The Ant Trap: Rebuilding the Foundations of the Social Sciences. Oxford University Press (with Francesco Di Iorio)
Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 48 (1), 105-135, https://doi.org/10.1177/00483931177247572017 | Review of Marcel Boumans (2015): Science Outside the Laboratory: Measurement in Field Science and Economics. Oxford University Press
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science - Review of Books, http://www.thebsps.org/reviewofbooks/marcel-boumans-science-outside-the-laboratory/2017 | Review of William Thomas (2015): Rational Action: The Sciences of Policy in Britain and America, 1940–1960. MIT Press
Isis - Journal of the History of Science Society, 108 (1), 227-228, https://doi.org/10.1086/6907792015 | Review of Paul Erickson, Judy Klein, Lorraine Daston, Rebecca Lemov, Thomas Sturm, Michael D. Gordin (2013): How Reason Almost Lost its Mind: The Strange Career of Cold War Rationality. University of Chicago Press
Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 56, 88-90, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2015.03.0052014 | Review of Steven Kates (2013): Defending the History of Economic Thought. Edward Elgar Publishing
Journal of Economic Literature, 52 (4), 1162-1165, https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.52.4.11602009 | Review of Heinrich Stieglitz (2008): Verbindlichkeit: Eine kritisch-realistische Bestimmung der Erkenntnis und des Wesens der Gesellschaft. Duncker & Humblot
ORDO - Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 60 (1), 554-558, https://doi.org/10.1515/ordo-2009-01332008 | Review of Victor Vanberg (Ed.) (2007): Wissenschaftstheorie und Wissen: Aufsätze zur Erkenntnis- und Wissenschaftslehre von Friedrich August von Hayek. Mohr Siebeck
ORDO - Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 59 (1), 523-528, https://doi.org/10.1515/ordo-2008-0133Working Papers and other Writings
2019 | Impact Factor Pressures, Scientific Practices, and the Place of Survey Articles in the History of Economics (with with Cléo Chassonnery-Zaïgouche and Erich Pinzon Fuchs)
CHOPE Working Paper, 2019-09, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.33898502015 | Reflections on the MCMP Summer Schools on Mathematical Philosophy for Female Students (with Milena Ivanova)
Digressions & Impressions, https://digressionsnimpressions.typepad.com/digressionsimpressions/2015/09/reflections-on-the-mcmp-summer-schools-on-mathematical-philosophy-for-female-students.html2014 | Decisions, Groups, and Networks, 8-9 September, 2014. Report on Workshop
The Reasoner, 8 (12), 132-133, https://research.kent.ac.uk/reasoning/wp-content/uploads/sites/1804/2019/06/TheReasoner-812.pdf2013 | The Many Faces of Rational Choice Theory. Dissertation Summary
Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics 6 (2), 117-121, https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v6i2.1432013 | Axiomatic Choice Theory Traveling Between Mathematical Formalism, Normative Choice Rules and Psychological Measurement, 1944-1956
CHOPE Working Paper, 2013-11, 1-67, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.22968842012 | The Martin Shubik Papers: From Early Game Theory to the Strategic Analysis of War (with Danilo Da Silva)
The Devil’s Tale: Dispatches from the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University, https://blogs.library.duke.edu/rubenstein/the-martin-shubik-papers - Teaching
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Awards and Prizes
2021 | Karl Heinz Hoffmann Prize
Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (10.000 EUR)2014 | Joseph Dorfman Best Dissertation Prize
History of Economics Society, US. (500 US-Dollar)2014 | Best Doctoral Dissertation Prize
Wittener Universitätsgesellschaft of Witten/Herdecke University, Germany. -
Scholarships, Fellowships and Grants (selected)
2021 | ERC Starting Grant
European Research Council, in support of the project: 'Model Transfer and its Challenges in Science: The Case of Economics' (1.5.Mio. EUR).2021 | Project Grant
University Research Priority Program “Equality of Opportunity,” UZH (145.000 EUR).2020 | Project Grant
Stiftung für Wissenschaftliche Forschung in support of the project ‘Why Do Female Students Leave Philosophy? Evidence from Switzerland’, (25.000 CHF).2019 | Conference Grant
Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) in support of the conference ‘The Soul of Economics’ (23.000 CHF).2018 | Workshop Grant
Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) in support of the workshop ‘Concept Formation in the Natural and Social Sciences’ (13.400 CHF).2018 | Seed Money
UZH, in support of an SNF grant application (10.000 CHF).2016 | Research Grant
European Society for the History of Economics in support of the project “Explorations in the recent history of decision theory, 1945‐1990,” together with Ivan Moscati (Insubria University) (11.000 EUR).2015 | Junior Research Fellowship
Center for Advanced Studies at LMU Munich (semester-long research fellowship awarded for academic excellence).2014 | Young Scholar Award
History of Economics Society.2013-16 | Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, LMU Munich, Germany.2012-13 | Junior Research Fellow
Center for the History of Political Economy, Duke University, USA.2011-12 | Predoctoral Research Fellow
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Germany.
Department: Lorraine Daston2007-09 | Full PhD-scholarship
Witten/Herdecke University.