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 study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...

and

Philosophy of Science Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. Amongst its central questions are the difference between science and non-science, the reliability of scientific theories, ...

and

Economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...

, and a professor of philosophy at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

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

decision theory Decision theory or the theory of rational choice is a branch of probability theory, probability, economics, and analytic philosophy that uses expected utility and probabilities, probability to model how individuals would behave Rationality, ratio ...

game theory Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions. It has applications in many fields of social science, and is used extensively in economics, logic, systems science and computer science. Initially, game theory addressed ...

, and the foundations of

probability Probability is a branch of mathematics and statistics concerning events and numerical descriptions of how likely they are to occur. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and 1; the larger the probability, the more likely an e ...

Education and career

Skyrms graduated from

Lehigh University Lehigh University (LU), in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States, is a private university, private research university. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer. Lehigh University's undergraduate programs have been mixed ...

in 1960 and earned his Ph.D. in

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

from the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

in 1964. He taught at several different universities, before teaching at the University of Illinois, Chicago from 1968 until 1980, when he moved to the

. Skyrms is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences 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, NGO, 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 ...

Philosophical work

Most recently, his work has focused on the evolution of social norms using evolutionary game theory. 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 studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and Political legitimacy, legitimacy of political institutions, such as State (polity), states. This field investigates different ...

philosophy of social science Philosophy of social science examines how social science integrates with other related scientific disciplines, which implies a rigorous, systematic endeavor to build and organize knowledge relevant to the interaction between individual people and ...

philosophy of language Philosophy of language refers to the philosophical study of the nature of language. It investigates the relationship between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of Meaning (philosophy), me ...

, and the

philosophy of biology The philosophy of biology is a subfield of philosophy of science, which deals with epistemology, epistemological, metaphysics, metaphysical, and ethics, ethical issues in the biological and biomedical sciences. Although philosophers of science and ...

. Skymrs has shown that in the 'cake partition' game, the only evolutionarily stable strategy is demanding 50% of the cake.

Books

*''Ten Great Ideas about Chance'' (with Persi Diaconis, 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 American game theorists Lakatos Award winners Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences American philosophers of language American philosophers of social science American probability theorists Philosophers of probability Stanford University Department of Philosophy faculty University of California, Irvine faculty