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.

June 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)

July 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)

June 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

June 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)