Wittgenstein Lectures
The Wittgenstein Lectures were inaugurated 1987. It was one of the first steps towards internationalization of teaching at the University. Traditionally we invite a renowned philosopher to hold a week of lectures and colloquia on themes central to our Philosophy & Economics programme.
All philosophy teaching stops for a week and the first lecture is usually followed by a reception. At the end of the series there is a short exam. Students get 2 ECTS for module CI1 (formerly V1). Sometimes we offer advanced seminar courses on the work of the Wittgenstein Lecturer.
The Wittgenstein Lectures are open to the public and all members of the University.
2026
Connected Intelligence: How our Social Ties generate Knowledge
Kevin Zollman
Carnegie Mellon University
2025
Automating the Economic Style of Reasoning
Diane Coyle
University of Cambridge
These lectures were accompanied by a panel discussion on "The Future of Philosophy and Economics in the Age of AI" which may be viewed online here: https://mms.uni-bayreuth.de/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=f160e889-fd46-4808-b4bb-b30800ea79f0&query=3b1f27c4-11d3-48f6-ab9f-b306006e847e
2023
The Normative Significance of Axiology
Hilary Greaves
University of Oxford
2022
Labor's Self-Liberation from Capital
A. J. Julius
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
2020
Network Epistemology: What Economics and Philosophy Tell Us About Learning in Groups (unfortunately, this event had to be cancelled due to the corona pandemic)
Kevin Zollman
Carnegie Mellon University
2019
Blaming and Forgiving - The Work of Morality
Miranda Fricker
City University of New York Graduate Center
2018
Climate Change and Obligations for Future Generations
Joseph Heath
University of Toronto
2017
Markets and Morality
Debra Satz
Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society (Stanford University)
2016
Preference, Prediction and Policy
Daniel M. Hausman
Herbert A. Simon and Hilldale Professor University of Wisconsin-Madison
2015
Left Libertarianism: Promise and Problems
Peter Vallentyne
Kline Chair in Philosophy University of Missouri-Columbia
2014
The Ethics and Economics of Climate Change
John Broome
Emeritus White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy, University of Oxford
2013
The Revolution in Just War Theory
Jeff McMahan
White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy, University of Oxford
2012
The Robust Demands of the Good
Philip Pettit
Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and Human Values at Princeton University
2011
Ethics and Public Policy
Jonathan Wolff
Professor of Political Philosophy, University College London
2010
Values, Norms, Decisions
Wlodek Rabinowicz
Professor (emeritus) of Philosophy, Lund University
2009
Collective Actions and the Commons: What Have We Learned?
Elinor Ostrom
Professor (emeritus) of Political Science, Indiana University
(Nobel Prize in Economics, 2009; †2012)
2008
Philosophy Amid the Darkness of These Times
Jonathan Glover
Professor of Philosophy, King's College, University of London
2007
From Rankings to Reasons
Michael Smith
McCosh Professor of Philosophy, Princeton University
2006
The Theory of (Un)Bounded Rationality: Games, Experiments and Evolution
Werner Güth
Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena
2005
Evolution, Learning and the Social Contract
Brian Skyrms
Distinguished Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science and Economics at the University of California, Irvine
1998
Kritischer Rationalismus
Hans Albert†
Heidelberg
