Areas of Specialization: philosophy of science (especially economics and psychology), ethics

Areas of Competence: history and sociology of science, metaphysics, game and decision theory

 

Current position: Assistant Professor, Philosophy Department, University of Missouri St Louis, from Fall 2007

 

Previous Employment: McDonnell Post Doctoral Fellow, Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology Program, Washington University in St. Louis 2006-2007

 

Education:

2000-2006 PhD Philosophy (with Science Studies), University of California, San Diego

            Dissertation: “Connecting Models to the Real World: Game Theory in Action”

            Committee: Nancy Cartwright, Craig Callender, Richard Arneson, Naomi Oreskes (History), Vincent Crawford (Economics)

1998-1999 MSc Philosophy of Social Science, London School of Economics, UK

            MSc Dissertation “Naturalism in Anthropology: Does Sperber’s naturalistic model of culture imply indefensible reductionism?”

            Overall final score was the highest in the class of 1998-9.

1995-1998 BSc Communications, Intercollege, Nicosia, Cyprus

            Summa Cum Laude

1994-1995 Linguistics and Philology, Kuban State University, Krasnodar, Russia     

                    

Publications:

“First-Person Reports and Measurement of Happiness” forthcoming in Philosophical Psychology

“Making Models Count” forthcoming in Philosophy of Science

 “What Experimental Economics Teaches Us About Models” forthcoming in Journal of Economic Methodology

“Progress in Economics: Lessons from the Spectrum Auctions” (with R. Northcott), forthcoming in The Oxford handbook for Philosophy of Economics, eds. H. Kincaid and D. Ross, OUP.

“Connecting Rational Choice Models to the Real World” Philosophy of The Social Sciences 36/2, June 2006, 173-192

“Subjective Well-Being and Kahneman’s ‘Objective Happiness’” Journal of Happiness Studies 2005, 6:301-324

“Laws” (as a second author with Nancy Cartwright) in The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy, eds. M. Smith and F. Jackson, OUP, 2006

“Probabilistic Causality, Selection Bias and the Logic of Democratic Peace” (as a second author with B. Slantchev and E. Gartzke), American Political Science Review 2005 99/3:459-462

Review of Max Steuer’s ‘Scientific Study of Society’ (with R. Northcott), Economics and Philosophy 2004, 20/2: 375-381

 

Articles in preparation:

“Well-being and Practical Interests: A Defense of Variantism”

“Neural Mechanisms for Microeconomics: No Revolution Necessary” with Carl Craver to appear in Economics and Philosophy

"What 'Analytic Narratives' Accomplish"

 

Presentations (* = refereed conference presentations):

“Making Models Count” Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, February 2008

“Picking Between Different Notions of Well-Being in Science and in Life” Washington University in St Louis, Psychology Department Brown Bag Series, February 2008

“Well-Being and Practical Interests” The Subjective Well-Being Workshop, University of Alabama, Birmingham, February 2008

“Making Models Count” University of Missouri, Columbia, Philosophy Department Colloquium, October 2007

*“Do game theoretical models explain?” British Society for Philosophy of Science, Bristol, July 2007

*Author Meets Critics (Francesco Guala’s Methodology of Experimental Economics), American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division, San Francisco March 2007

*“What the Science of Happiness can learn from Philosophy” Science and Philosophy  Symposium at Stony Brook, March 2007

“Comments on Dina Garmong’s “Toward a more robust theory of well-being”” Midsouth Philosophy Conference, Memphis TN, February 2007

“Making Models Count” New York University, Philosophy Department Colloquium, January 2007

*“How to use Introspective Reports to Measure Happiness” Philosophy of Science Association Biennial Meeting, Vancouver, November 2006

“Measuring Happiness Accurately”, Washington University in St Louis, September 2006

“Connecting Rational Choice Models to the Real World” Washington University, PNP Works in Progress Series, December 2005

“Connecting Economic Models to the Real World” University of Cyprus, September 2005

*“From Models to Institutions: Game theory and Auction Design” British Society for Philosophy of Science, University of Manchester, July 2005

*“From Models to Institutions: Game theory and Auction Design” Across Boundaries, Beyond Dichotomies, Interdisciplinary Investigations in Biological and Social Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, April 2005

*“Connecting Rational Choice Models to the Real World”, American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division, San Francisco, April 2005

*“Connecting Rational Choice Model to the Real World”, 7th Annual Philosophy of Social Science Roundtable, Barnard College, March 2005

“Subjective Well-Being and Kahneman’s ‘Objective Happiness’”, Cognitive Brown Bag, Psychology Department, UC – San Diego, February 2005

*“Connecting Rational Choice Models to the Real World”, Southern California Philosophy Conference, UC – Irvine, November 2004

“Subjective Well-Being and Kahneman’s ‘Objective Happiness’”, Experimental Philosophy Lab, UC – San Diego, October 2004

*“Qualitative Comparative Method and the Problem of Spurious Correlation”, Tensions in Social Statistics, University of Durham, England, September 2004

“Connecting Rational Choice Models to the Real World”, Experimental Philosophy Lab, UC – San Diego, April 2004

*“Mill’s Dilemma and Comparative Social Science”, March 2003, 5th Annual Philosophy of Social Science St. Louis Roundtable, UM – St. Louis

“Comments on Couch’s “Functional Properties and Causal Relevance””, April 2003, UC–San Diego Graduate Philosophy Conference

“Mill’s Dilemma and the Proper Place of Game Theory in Social Science”, Science Studies Program Colloquium, UC–San Diego, October 2003 

 

Scholarships and Awards:

National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant, 2004-2005

Philosophy Teaching Assistant of the Year, UCSD, 2003 Inaugural award

Dissertation Fellowship, Philosophy Department, UCSD, 2005-6

Dissertation Fellowship, Center For Humanities, UCSD, Winter 2005

NSF Dissertation Fellowship, Science Studies Program, UCSD, Fall 2004

Global Supplementary Grant Program Scholarship, Open Society Institute, 2000-2003

Foreign Tuition Scholarship, University of California San Diego, 2001-2004

Frederic and Clara Wall Scholarship, The International Center, UCSD, 2002-3, 2004

Intercollege, Cyprus, Academic Merit Scholarship 1995-1998

 

Teaching:

Philosophy of Science, UM St Louis Fall 2007, Winter 2008

Philosophy of Social Science (advanced undergraduates and graduate students), UM St Louis, Winter 2008

Current Controversies in Cognitive Science: Happiness (advanced undergraduates and graduate students), Washington University in St Louis, Spring 2007

Problems in Philosophy (introductory metaphysics), Washington University in St   Louis, Spring 2007

Proseminar: Theories of Happiness and Well-being (seminar for incoming Master’s students), University of Missouri, St Louis, Fall 2006, Fall 2007

Logic and Decision Making (lower division course), UC San Diego, Spring 2006

Games and Decisions (upper division course), UC San Diego, Spring 2006

 

Service:

Serving on advisory board for Handbook of Philosophy of Social Science, Sage 2009.

Organized a Works in Progress speaker series at Washington University in St Louis, Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology program 2006-2007

Organized an Author Meets Critics Session on Francesco Guala’s Methodology of Experimental Economics, Pacific APA 2007

Organized and ran the UCSD Philosophy of Science Reading Group 2003-5

Referee for Synthese, Journal of Economic Methodology, Society for Exact Philosophy, Science and Public Policy, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Palgrave Macmillan

 

Date of birth: May 1st 1977

 

Nationality: Russian, permanent resident in USA

 

Languages:

English (fluent)

French (good reading and satisfactory writing and speaking, spent one year as an exchange student in Toulouse, France, completed Le Français du Baccalauréat at Lycée Pierre d’Aragon 1993-1994)

Russian (native language)

 

References:

Nancy Cartwright, Professor at London School of Economics and UC San Diego

William Bechtel, Professor at UC San Diego

Craig Callender, Professor at UC San Diego

Francesco Guala, Senior Lecturer at University of Exeter

Richard Arneson, Professor at UC San Diego

Harold Kincaid, Professor at University of Alabama, Birmingham