Claus Beisbart
University of Bern, Switzerland

September 2007
Claus is a postdoc at TU Dortmund University. After doing mathematics, physics and philosophy in Munich and Tübingen, he obtained a Ph.D. in physics with a dissertation on cosmology (LMU Munich 2001). He then worked as a physics postdoc in Oxford for a while. In 2004, he got a second Ph.D., this time in philosophy, where he worked on reasons for action (LMU Munich). In 2004-2005 Claus was a member of the Philosophy, Probability and Modeling Research Group in Konstanz.
Claus’ current research interests are largely in the philosophy of science, where he is particularly interested in how simulations shape present-day science. His project at the Center in Pittsburgh concerns the philosophy of physics, viz. the foundations of physical cosmology. His research at Pittsburgh is supported by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) and the Center, of course. Claus has also interests in Kant and in ethics, public choice theory and voting theory. He is particularly glad to be in the States, when the 2008 presidential elections take place, since he has published on the Electoral College voting system.

2009
Recent publications include:

Kant's Characterization of Natural Ends, Kant Yearbook 1 (2009), pp. 1 – 30

Welfarist Evaluations of Decision Rules for Interstate Utility Dependencies, Social Choice and Welfare 34 (2010), 315 – 344 (with S. Hartmann)

2010
Recent publications include:

Can we Justifiably Assume the Cosmological Principle in order to Break Model Underdetermination in Cosmology? Journal for General Philosophy of Science 40 (2009), pp. 175 – 205

How to Fix Directions or  Are Assignments of Vector Characteristics Attributions of Intrinsic Properties?', Dialectica 63 (2009), pp. 503 – 524 

Groups Can Make a Difference: Voting Power Measures Extended, to appear in Theory and Decision; an earlier version was published in the Discussion Paper Series of the CPNSS at the LSE.

Measuring Influence for Dependent Voters: A Generalisation of the Banzhaf Measure'', Synthese 2011, in print (with L. Bovens)

2011
Recent publications include:

A Rational Approach to Risk? Bayesian Decision Theory, to appear in: Roeser, S., Hillerbrand, R., Peterson, M., Sandin, P. (eds.), Handbook of Risk Theory, Springer

Introduction, to appear in: Beisbart, C., Hartmann, S. (eds.), Probabilities in Physics, Oxford University Press, 2011 (with S. Hartmann)

Probabilistic Modeling in Physics, to appear in: Beisbart, C., Hartmann, S. (eds.), Probabilities in Physics

2012

Recent publications include:

"How Can Computer Simulations Produce New Knowledge?", European Journal for Philosophy of Science 2 (2012), 395 - 434

"Minimizing the Threat of a Positive Majority De
cit in Two-tier Voting Systems with Equipopulous Units", forthcoming in Public Choice 2012 (with L. Bovens)

"Können wir wissen, wie das Universum bescha
ffen ist? Echte und vermeintliche Erkenntnisprobleme der Kosmologie" (Can we know what the Universe is like? Real and alleged epistemological di
culties of physical cosmology"), in: M. Esfeld (ed.), Philosophie der Physik, Suhrkamp, Berlin 2012, pp. 179-193 (in German)

2015

New publications:

“Are We Sims? How Computer Simulations Represent, and What this Means for the Simulation Argument”, The Monist 97/3 (2014, special issue edited by P. Humphreys), pp. 399-417

“Good Just Isn't Good Enough: Humean Chances and Boltzmannian Statistical Physics”, erscheint in: M.C. Galavotti et al. (eds.), New Directions in the Philosophy of Science, The Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective 5, Springer, Berlin etc. 2014, pp. 511-529, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-04382-1 36

“Voting Power and Probability”, in: R. Fara, D. Leech und M. Salles (eds.), Voting Power and Procedures, Springer, Berlin etc. 2014, pp. 97-116

Since January 2015, I'm one of the co-editors of the Journal for General Philosophy of Science.

2016

New publications:
C. Beisbart, “Philosophy and Cosmology”, to appear in: P. Humphreys (ed.), Oxford Handbook in the Philosophy of Science, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2016, pp. 817-835
C. Beisbart, “A Humean Guide to Spielraum Probabilities”, Journal for General Philosophy of Science 47 (2016), pp. 189-216 (special issue edited by J. Rosenthal und C. Seck)
C. Beisbart, “Naturalismus” (in German), to appear in: C. Horn und K. Gabriel (eds.), Säkularität und Moderne, Freiburg/München 2016, pp. 121-160

2017

New publications:

Beisbart, C., 2017, "A Model-theoretic Analysis of Space-time Theories", to appear in: Lehmkuhl, D. & Scholz, E., Towards a Theory of Space-time Theories, Einstein Studies 13

Beisbart, C., 2016, "Azar y probabilidad" (Randomness and Probability; in Spanish, translated by F. Soler-Gil), in: Arana, J. (Hrsg.), Guía Comares de Filosofía de la Naturaleza, Granada: Editorial Comares 2016, pp. 91–111

Baumberger, C., Beisbart, C. & Brun, G. 2017, "What Is Understanding? An Overview of Recent Debates in Epistemology and Philosophy of Science", in: Grimm, S., Baumberger, C. & Ammon, S. (eds.), Explaining Understanding: New Perspectives from Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, New York: Routledge, pp. 1–34

Beisbart, C. & Falkenburg, B. 2017, "Faszination der Kosmologie (Why is Cosmology Fascinating?"; in German), in: Kirchhoff, Th. et al. (eds.), Naturphilosophie. Ein Lehr- und Studienbuch, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck/utb, pp. 323–331

Beisbart, C. 2017, "What Is Life? And Why Is the Question Still Open?", in: Losch, A. (ed.), What Is Life? On Earth and Beyond, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 111 – 131

We hosted a conference on the early applications of the General Theory of Relativity in Berne, see: http://www.philosophie.unibe.ch/news/spacetime2017/index_ger.html