Willfried Spohn
Biographic Data
| ID | 251827 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Willfried Spohn |
| GIVEN NAMES | Willfried |
| FAMILY NAME | Spohn |
| SIGNATURE | SPOHN W |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Konstanz |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3213-8907 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 43 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 94 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 42 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1986 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Obituary for Michael Friedman
published
Reflective choice: A novel decision rule for changing decision situations
The paper first argues that we need to generalize the notion of a strategy. In its most general sense, a strategy makes itself dependent not on external events, but on the agent’s changed decision situations. Therefore, the paper considers epistemic as well as utility or preference change, and it argues that ordinary optimizing of strategies as well as the decision rule of sophisticated choice cannot provide a rational response to considering suc…
The surplus value of knowledge
The Meno problem, asking for the surplus value of knowledge beyond the value of true justified belief, was recently much treated within reliabilist and virtue epistemologies. The answers from formal epistemology, by contrast, are quite poor. This paper attempts to improve the score of formal epistemology by precisely explicating Timothy Williamson's suggestion that ‘present knowledge is less vulnerable than mere present true belief to rational un…
A Generalization of the Reflection Principle
This paper generalizes (probabilistic) auto-epistemology by amending the original forward-looking reflection principle of van Fraassen [-@vanfraassen:1984], which is about learning or favorable epistemic changes in general, by a new but similar backward-looking principle, which is about forgetting and other unfavorable epistemic changes. The generalization is argued to be a completion by defending what is called the no-neutrality condition. Due t…
Defeasible normative reasoning
Reply to Jim Woodward’s Comments on Wolfgang Spohn’s Laws of Belief
This is one of a pair of discussion notes comparing some features of the account of causation in Wolfgang Spohn’s Laws of Belief with the “interventionist” account in James Woodward’s Making Things Happen . This note locates the core difference of the accounts in the fact that Woodward’s account follows an epistemological order, while Spohn’s follows a conceptual order. This unfolds in five further differences: (i) type- versus token-level causat…
Epistemic justification: Its subjective and its objective ways
Entangled Identities: Nations and Europe
Providing a comprehensive and comparative analysis of the way national and European identities are intertwined in old and new member states of the European Union, this volume assembles nine country case studies. Each country has experienced different processes of state formation, nation-building and democratization, thus they have each developed different forms of national identity and different patterns of interaction between national and Europe…
Collective Memory and European Identity: The Effects of Integration and Enlargement
Is it possible to create a collective European identity? In this volume, leading scholars assess the link between collective identity construction in Europe and the multiple memory discourses that intervene in this construction process. The authors believe that the exposure of national collective memories to an enlarging communicative space within Europe affects the ways in which national memories are framed. Through this perspective, several cas…
History and the Social Sciences
Religion and National Identities in an Enlarged Europe
This volume analyzes changing relationships between religion and national identity in the course of European integration. Examining elite discourse, media debates and public opinions across Europe ove
The Laws of Belief: Ranking Theory and Its Philosophical Applications
Wolfgang Spohn presents a full account of the dynamic laws of belief, by means of ranking theory, a relative of probability theory which he has pioneered since the 1980s. He offers novel insights into the nature of laws, the theory of causation inductive reasoning and its experiential base, and a priori principles of reason.
Erkenntnis Orientated: A Centennial Volume for Rudolf Carnap and Hans Reichenbach
Reversing 30 years of discussion: Why causal decision theorists should one-box
Nachruf. Zur globalen historischen Soziologie Shmuel Noah Eisenstadts (1923–2010) – eine Würdigung
An appraisal of Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt's global historical sociology
Shmuel N. Eisenstadt was one of the great sociologists of the second half of the twentieth century and a major visionary for the sociological challenges of the twenty-first century. As I claim, his overall work should be understood as a life-long critical conversation with the classical modernization paradigm from a heterodox and peripheral point of view - reflecting the Holocaust experience of European modernity as well as the precarious constru…
World history, civilizational analysis and historical sociology: Interpretations of non-Western civilizations in the work of Johann Arnason
The aim of this article is to assess Arnason's civilizational theory and methodology and their application to non-Western civilizations from a historical-comparative sociological perspective. Although civilizational analysis and historical sociology as historical-comparative orientations in sociology are closely connected, civilizational analysis concentrates particularly on the macro-history of civilizations, whereas historical-comparative socio…
Europäische multiple Modernität als interzivilisatorische Konstellation: Zur Transformation Europas durch europäische Integration und Erweiterung in einer sich globalisierenden Welt
In der interdisziplinären und auch soziologischen Europaforschung dominieren modernisierungs- und eurozentrische Prämissen, das heißt die Erklärung des europäischen Mehrebenenregimes aus den transnationalen Spill-over-Prozessen sich modernisierender Gesellschaften in Europa. Im Kontrast wird hier ein an Shmuel Eisenstadt orientierter interzivilisatorischer, multipler Modernitätsansatz auf Europa und den europäischen Integrations- und Erweiterungs…
Political Sociology: Between Civilizations and Modernities
This article outlines a comparative-civilizational multiple modernities perspective on political sociology. In the context of the major currents within political sociology - modernization approaches, critical and neo-Marxist as well as postmodern and global approaches - it is argued that a comparative-civilizational multiple modernities perspective is defined by several characteristics. First, against functionalist-evolutionist modernization appr…
Europeanization, Religion and Collective Identities in an Enlarging Europe: A Multiple Modernities Perspective
This article analyzes the conflictive role of religion in post-1989 Europe. Three major reasons for this are addressed: first, the restoration of structural and cultural pluralism of European civilization since the breakdown of communism entails the reconstitution of the full diversity of European religion. Second, international migration as a crucial part of globalization has intensified, contributing to the transformation of Europe into a compl…
Globale, multiple und verwobene Modernen: Perspektiven der historisch-vergleichenden Soziologie
Von ihren ersten europäischen Anfängen bis zu ihrer gegenwärtigen internationalen Entwicklung war und ist die Soziologie eine historisch und vergleichend orientierte Disziplin. Im Kern treibt sie die Leitidee, die Prozesse des sozialen Wandels in der sich modernisierenden und sich nun zunehmend globalisierenden Welt zu beschreiben, zu verstehen und zu erklären. Die Bezugspunkte der Soziologie waren für lange Zeit die sich modernisierenden Gesells…
Politik und Religion in Einer Sich Globalisierenden Welt
Politik und Religion in einer sich globalisierenden Welt
Causation, Coherence and Concepts: A Collection of Essays (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science)
Wolfgang Spohn, born 1950, is one of the most distinguished analytic philosophers and philosophers of science of Germany, editor-in-chief of Erkenntnis for more than 13 years, author of two books and more than 60 papers covering a wide range: epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of science, philosophical logic, philosophy of language and mind, and the theory of practical rationality. This collection presents 15 of his most important essays o…
Dependency Equilibria
This paper introduces a new equilibrium concept for normal form games called dependency equilibrium; it is defined, exemplified, and compared with Nash and correlated equilibria in Sections 2–4. Its philosophical motive is to rationalize cooperation in the one shot prisoners’ dilemma. A brief discussion of its meaningfulness in Section 5 concludes the paper
Multiple Modernity, Nationalism and Religion: A Global Perspective
The article develops a multiple modernity perspective that attempts to explain the global rise of religious and ethnic nationalism as a result of the contemporary worldwide multiple modernization processes with civilization-specific constellations of nation-state formation, democratization and religious change as well as secularization in the different world regions. For this purpose, the article first re-examines the exceptional case of Europe, …
Europeanization, Religion and Collective Identities in an Enlarging Europe: A Multiple Modernities Perspective
This article analyzes the conflictive role of religion in post-1989 Europe. Three major reasons for this are addressed: first, the restoration of structural and cultural pluralism of European civilization since the breakdown of communism entails the reconstitution of the full diversity of European religion. Second, international migration as a crucial part of globalization has intensified, contributing to the transformation of Europe into a compl…
World history, civilizational analysis and historical sociology: Interpretations of non-Western civilizations in the work of Johann Arnason
The aim of this article is to assess Arnason's civilizational theory and methodology and their application to non-Western civilizations from a historical-comparative sociological perspective. Although civilizational analysis and historical sociology as historical-comparative orientations in sociology are closely connected, civilizational analysis concentrates particularly on the macro-history of civilizations, whereas historical-comparative socio…
Political Sociology: Between Civilizations and Modernities
This article outlines a comparative-civilizational multiple modernities perspective on political sociology. In the context of the major currents within political sociology - modernization approaches, critical and neo-Marxist as well as postmodern and global approaches - it is argued that a comparative-civilizational multiple modernities perspective is defined by several characteristics. First, against functionalist-evolutionist modernization appr…
Causation: An Alternative
The paper builds on the basically Humean idea that A is a cause of B iff A and B both occur, A precedes B, and A raises the metaphysical or epistemic status of B given the obtaining circumstances. It argues that in pursuit of a theory of deterministic causation this ‘status raising’ is best explicated not in regularity or counterfactual terms, but in terms of ranking functions. On this basis, it constructs a rigorous theory of deterministic causa…
Religion and Working-Class Formation in Imperial Germany 1871-1914
Eisenstadt on Civilizations and Multiple Modernity
Reversing 30 years of discussion: Why causal decision theorists should one-box
Defeasible normative reasoning
An appraisal of Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt's global historical sociology
Shmuel N. Eisenstadt was one of the great sociologists of the second half of the twentieth century and a major visionary for the sociological challenges of the twenty-first century. As I claim, his overall work should be understood as a life-long critical conversation with the classical modernization paradigm from a heterodox and peripheral point of view - reflecting the Holocaust experience of European modernity as well as the precarious constru…
A Brief Comparison Of Pollock's Defeasible Reasoning And Ranking Functions
Europäische multiple Modernität als interzivilisatorische Konstellation: Zur Transformation Europas durch europäische Integration und Erweiterung in einer sich globalisierenden Welt
In der interdisziplinären und auch soziologischen Europaforschung dominieren modernisierungs- und eurozentrische Prämissen, das heißt die Erklärung des europäischen Mehrebenenregimes aus den transnationalen Spill-over-Prozessen sich modernisierender Gesellschaften in Europa. Im Kontrast wird hier ein an Shmuel Eisenstadt orientierter interzivilisatorischer, multipler Modernitätsansatz auf Europa und den europäischen Integrations- und Erweiterungs…
Enumerative Induction and Lawlikeness
The paper is based on ranking theory, a theory of degrees of disbelief (and hence belief). On this basis, it explains enumerative induction, the confirmation of a law by its positive instances, which may, indeed, take various schemes. It gives a ranking theoretic explication of a possible law or a nomological hypothesis. It proves, then, that such schemes of enumerative induction uniquely correspond to mixtures of such nomological hypotheses. Thu…
Die Osterweiterung der Europäischen Union und die Bedeutung kollektiver Identitäten: Ein Vergleich west- und osteuropäischer Staaten
The Organicity of Classes and the Naked Proletarian. Towards a New Formulation of the Class Conception
The Organicity of Classes and the Naked Proletarian. Towards a New Formulation of the Class Conception
Zum methodologischen Verhältnis von Sozialgeschichte, historischer Soziologie und Geschichtsphilosophie: Am Beispiel einiger jüngerer Interpretationsansätze der Klassenformierung der Arbeiterschaft
The New 'True' Socialism and the Old 'Correct' Marxism
Letters
Toward a Historical Sociology of Working-Class Formation
Following the enormous international expansion of labor history, comparative approaches have been developed to systematize and explain the peculiarities of national patterns of working-class formation. One of the most fully elaborated recent approaches in this area is the collective investigation by Ira Katznelson, Aristide Zolberg, and associates (1986). Conceptually, this approach follows Jürgen Kocka's Weberian-Marxist class model in reducing …
Introduction: The East German Revolution, German Unification, and the Left
Religion and Working-Class Formation in Imperial Germany 1871-1914
Zur Programmatik und Entwicklung der neuen historischen Soziologie
Can Europe Work? Germany and the Reconstruction of Postcommunist Societies
IntroductionPART ONE: THE PAST & FUTURE OF NATIONALISM & NATIONAL IDENTITYNationalism in Western and Eastern Europe ComparedThe Role of Nationalism in East European Latecomers to DemocracyThe Polish Roman Catholic Church Unbound: Change of Face or Change of Context?PART TWO: GERMANY: NEW CORE OR OLD PROBLEM?United Germany as the Renewed Center in Europe: Continuity and Change in the German QuestionGerman Economic Penetration in East Central Europ…
Historische Soziologie zwischen Sozialtheorie und Sozialgeschichte
Während die historische Soziologie in den angelsächsischen Ländern seit den 1970er Jahren einen nachhaltigen Aufschwung erlebt, hat sie in Deutschland ihren Platz eher in der Sozial- oder Gesellschaftsgeschichte als in der Soziologie selbst. Die erfolgreiche Entwicklung dieser ›neuen historischen Soziologie‹1 in den angelsächsischen Ländern zeigt sich nicht nur in ihren wissenschaftsprogrammatischen Bestandsaufnahmen, wie sie etwa von Philip Abra…
Die Osterweiterung der Europäischen Union und die Bedeutung kollektiver Identitäten: Ein Vergleich west- und osteuropäischer Staaten
Eisenstadt on Civilizations and Multiple Modernity
A Brief Comparison Of Pollock's Defeasible Reasoning And Ranking Functions
Hauptwerke der Ungleichheitsforschung
Die zentralen Werke der Ungleichheitsforschung werden gut verstandlich und kompakt in ihren Hauptaussagen dargestellt.
Multiple Modernity, Nationalism and Religion: A Global Perspective
The article develops a multiple modernity perspective that attempts to explain the global rise of religious and ethnic nationalism as a result of the contemporary worldwide multiple modernization processes with civilization-specific constellations of nation-state formation, democratization and religious change as well as secularization in the different world regions. For this purpose, the article first re-examines the exceptional case of Europe, …
Collective Memory and European Identity: The Effects of Integration and Enlargement
Contents: National identities and collective memory in an enlarged Europe, Willfried Spohn. Collective Identities in Europe and European Identities: European self-understanding in the Twentieth Century, Hartmut Kaelble East-European historical bequest en route to an integrated Europe, Jerzy Jedlicki Global diaspora? European Jewish consciousness? Reflections on German Jewry and the postmodern debate, Y. Michal Bodemann. Europe, National Identitie…
Enumerative Induction and Lawlikeness
The paper is based on ranking theory, a theory of degrees of disbelief (and hence belief). On this basis, it explains enumerative induction, the confirmation of a law by its positive instances, which may, indeed, take various schemes. It gives a ranking theoretic explication of a possible law or a nomological hypothesis. It proves, then, that such schemes of enumerative induction uniquely correspond to mixtures of such nomological hypotheses. Thu…
Causation: An Alternative
The paper builds on the basically Humean idea that A is a cause of B iff A and B both occur, A precedes B, and A raises the metaphysical or epistemic status of B given the obtaining circumstances. It argues that in pursuit of a theory of deterministic causation this ‘status raising’ is best explicated not in regularity or counterfactual terms, but in terms of ranking functions. On this basis, it constructs a rigorous theory of deterministic causa…
Dependency Equilibria
This paper introduces a new equilibrium concept for normal form games called dependency equilibrium; it is defined, exemplified, and compared with Nash and correlated equilibria in Sections 2–4. Its philosophical motive is to rationalize cooperation in the one shot prisoners’ dilemma. A brief discussion of its meaningfulness in Section 5 concludes the paper
Globale, multiple und verwobene Modernen: Perspektiven der historisch-vergleichenden Soziologie
Von ihren ersten europäischen Anfängen bis zu ihrer gegenwärtigen internationalen Entwicklung war und ist die Soziologie eine historisch und vergleichend orientierte Disziplin. Im Kern treibt sie die Leitidee, die Prozesse des sozialen Wandels in der sich modernisierenden und sich nun zunehmend globalisierenden Welt zu beschreiben, zu verstehen und zu erklären. Die Bezugspunkte der Soziologie waren für lange Zeit die sich modernisierenden Gesells…
Politik und Religion in Einer Sich Globalisierenden Welt
Politik und Religion in einer sich globalisierenden Welt
Causation, Coherence and Concepts: A Collection of Essays (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science)
Wolfgang Spohn, born 1950, is one of the most distinguished analytic philosophers and philosophers of science of Germany, editor-in-chief of Erkenntnis for more than 13 years, author of two books and more than 60 papers covering a wide range: epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of science, philosophical logic, philosophy of language and mind, and the theory of practical rationality. This collection presents 15 of his most important essays o…
Europeanization, Religion and Collective Identities in an Enlarging Europe: A Multiple Modernities Perspective
This article analyzes the conflictive role of religion in post-1989 Europe. Three major reasons for this are addressed: first, the restoration of structural and cultural pluralism of European civilization since the breakdown of communism entails the reconstitution of the full diversity of European religion. Second, international migration as a crucial part of globalization has intensified, contributing to the transformation of Europe into a compl…
Europäische multiple Modernität als interzivilisatorische Konstellation: Zur Transformation Europas durch europäische Integration und Erweiterung in einer sich globalisierenden Welt
In der interdisziplinären und auch soziologischen Europaforschung dominieren modernisierungs- und eurozentrische Prämissen, das heißt die Erklärung des europäischen Mehrebenenregimes aus den transnationalen Spill-over-Prozessen sich modernisierender Gesellschaften in Europa. Im Kontrast wird hier ein an Shmuel Eisenstadt orientierter interzivilisatorischer, multipler Modernitätsansatz auf Europa und den europäischen Integrations- und Erweiterungs…
Philosophy (24 works) · Political science (23 works) · Epistemology (19 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Law (17 works) · Computer Science (14 works) · Mathematics (9 works) · Politics (9 works) · Artificial Intelligence (8 works) · Philosophy and History of Science (8 works)