Our research in this area includes the following themes:

  • The significance and interpretation of negative results in social choice theory;
  • The limits and problems of mathematisation, especially in economics;
  • The philosophical significance of representational measurement theory;
  • Green economics.

Members of the School of Philosophy working in this area

Dr Davide Rizza works mainly on the philosophy of applied mathematics, focusing on the analysis of mathematisation, i.e. the process whereby an empirical problem is subjected to mathematical representation and the explanatory contribution of mathematics to the investigation of empirical phenomena. He is also interested in the limitations and drawbacks of mathematisation, e.g. the reduction of empirical problems to purely formal problems whose solution may have no empirical interpretation. His research concentrates on the application of mathematics in basic experimental practices like measurement and data analysis and in the social sciences, especially economics (social choice theory, utility theory). (See Publications and Academia.edu page)

Dr Rupert Read has published on the case for a green ecological economics, and making various criticisms of the model of economics as a science. He is currently working on a book on the foundations of 'environmental science' including environmental economics; the book has the working title, "Costing Earth". (See Publications and Academia.edu page)