Brian Skyrms (born 1938) is an American philosopher, Distinguished Professor of

Logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from prem ...

and

Philosophy of Science Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultim ...

and

Economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics anal ...

at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and p ...

, and a professor of philosophy at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

. He has worked on problems in the philosophy of science, causation,

decision theory Decision theory (or the theory of choice; not to be confused with choice theory) is a branch of applied probability theory concerned with the theory of making decisions based on assigning probabilities to various factors and assigning numerical ...

game theory Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions among rational agents. Myerson, Roger B. (1991). ''Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict,'' Harvard University Press, p.&nbs1 Chapter-preview links, ppvii–xi It has appli ...

, and the foundations of

probability Probability is the branch of mathematics concerning numerical descriptions of how likely an event is to occur, or how likely it is that a proposition is true. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and 1, where, roughly speaking, ...

Education and career

Skyrms graduated from

Lehigh University Lehigh University (LU) is a private research university in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer and was originally affiliated with the Epi ...

in 1960 and earned his Ph.D. in

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

from the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

in 1964. He taught at several different universities, before teaching at the

University of Illinois, Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illin ...

from 1968 until 1980, when he moved to the

. Skyrms is a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts & Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

and one of two living philosophers (along with Allan Gibbard) to be elected a Fellow of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

Philosophical work

Most recently, his work has focused on the evolution of social norms using

evolutionary game theory Evolutionary game theory (EGT) is the application of game theory to evolving populations in biology. It defines a framework of contests, strategies, and analytics into which Darwinian competition can be modelled. It originated in 1973 with John M ...

. His two recent books ''Evolution of the Social Contract'' and ''The Stag Hunt'' are both on this topic. These books use arguments and examples from evolutionary game theory to cover topics of interest to

political philosophy Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, ...

philosophy of social science The philosophy of social science is the study of the logic, methods, and foundations of social sciences (psychology, cultural anthropology, sociology, etc...). Philosophers of social science are concerned with the differences and similarities be ...

philosophy of language In analytic philosophy, philosophy of language investigates the nature of language and the relations between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of Meaning (philosophy of language), meanin ...

, and the philosophy of biology.

Books

*''Ten Great Ideas about Chance'' (with

Persi Diaconis Persi Warren Diaconis (; born January 31, 1945) is an American mathematician of Greek descent and former professional magician. He is the Mary V. Sunseri Professor of Statistics and Mathematics at Stanford University. He is particularly kno ...

, Princeton University Press, 2018)
''Social Dynamics''
Oxford University Press 2014.

Oxford University Press 2010 * ''The Stag Hunt and the Evolution of Social Structure'', Cambridge University Press 2004 * ''Evolution of the Social Contract'', Cambridge University Press 1996 * ''The Dynamics of Rational Deliberation'', Harvard University Press 1990 * ''Pragmatics and Empiricism'', Yale University Press 1984 * ''Causal Necessity'', Yale University Press 1980 * ''Choice and Chance: An Introduction to Inductive Logic'', Dickenson 1966, 4th ed. Wadsworth 1999. (Translated into German as: ''Einführung in die induktive Logik'', Lang 1989.)

References

External links

Skyrms' homepage

Press release regarding his election to the NAS
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Skyrms, Brian 1938 births Living people 20th-century American philosophers 21st-century American philosophers American logicians Economists from California Game theorists Lakatos Award winners Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Philosophers of language Philosophers of science Philosophers of social science Probability theorists Stanford University Department of Philosophy faculty University of California, Irvine faculty