John Broome giving the 2014 Wittgenstein Lecture at the Univsersity of Bayreuth

Wittgenstein Lectures

The Wittgenstein Lectures were inaugurated 1987. It was one of the first steps towards internationalization of teaching at the University. Traditionally we invite a renowned philosopher to hold a week of lectures and colloquia on themes central to our Philosophy & Economics programme.

All philosophy teaching stops for a week and the first lecture is usually followed by a reception. At the end of the series there is a short exam. Students get 2 ECTS for module CI1 (formerly V1). Sometimes we offer advanced seminar courses on the work of the Wittgenstein Lecturer.

The Wittgenstein Lectures are open to the public and all members of the University.

Wittgenstein Lectures 2025

Diane Coyle (University of Cambridge):
Automating the Economic Style of Reasoning

June 23 - June 27 2025 [Time-table]

Abstract: Economic reasoning has shaped modern societies for more than half a century, but late 20th century growth has given way to 21st century discontent with consequences of this public philosophical order - consequences such as environmental crisis, inequality, and economic stagnation. At the same time the advent of public data-driven decision-making using machine learning and AI is automating the economic style of reasoning.Some see the technological tools as holding out the promise of a return to expansive economic progress. This series of lectures will set out these tensions of the moment, and discuss the implications of automated public decisions for the understanding of social welfare.

Lectures:

The breakdown, and the triumph, of economic reasoning [June 23 I 16-18 c.t. I H 24 (RW I) I Reception]
The economic system that has prevailed in the west for the past half century has broken down, ceasing to deliver broad-based progress, yet paradoxically the economic style of reasoning is being embedded in AI models and let loose on many areas of decision making. This lecture will set out principles for the use of AI in public decisions and ask how decisions can be evaluated.
Automating social welfare [June 24 I Lecture 10-12 c.t., Colloquium 12-13 c.t. I H 22 (RW II)]
Algorithmic systems designed with the best of intentions can have perverse consequences. This lecture asks how can social welfare be coded? How does AI reflect - or not - society’s fundamental values?
Data as code [June 25 I Lecture 10-12 c.t., Colloquium 12-13 c.t. I H 13 (NW I)]
AI eats data and produces data, but data is socially constructed - what we measure systematically both reflects and shapes society. This lecture argues that data is itself a form of code – it determines the algorithmic decisions just as much as what we consider to be the code – Universal Turing machine is fluid as between hardware, software and data.
The elusive productivity revolution [June 26 I Lecture 10-12 c.t., Colloquium 12-13 c.t. I H 36 (NW III)]
AI has the potential to boost productivity and living standards substantially but to do so it will have to change how organisations make their economic decisions. This lecture focuses on the implications of this transformational information and computation technology for power and accountability in the workplace and the economy.
The public option [June 27 I Lecture 10-12 c.t. I H 31 (FAN B)]
AI demands a new role for the state in the economy, as the market-oriented philosophy of the late 20th and early 21st centuries malfunctions, given the importance of non-rival goods and knowledge spillovers. This lecture makes the case for a more extensive publicly-provided or co-ordinated infrastructure and the importance of public options to discipline digital markets all too often dominated by the rich and powerful.

Panel Discussion:

The Future of Philosophy and Economics in the Age of AI [June 26 I 16-18 c.t. I H 21 (RW II)]
Both economics and philosophy have seen many paradigm shifts over their long histories. The next big challenge is how these disciplines will and should react to the rise of AI. AI is likely to change how researchers operate. But what is the best, and ethically most responsible, way to implement it in research? What special obligations do philosophers and economists have during the advent of AI? How can these disciplines better inform public discussion, and what could their contribution be?
Participants: Diane Coyle (Cambridge) I Silvia Milano (Exeter/Munich) I Mirco Schoenfeld (Bayreuth) I David Stadelmann (Bayreuth) I Matthias Brinkmann (Bayreuth/Munich) (Moderator)

2024
Addressing Structural Injustice, Changing Social Systems

Sally Haslanger
MIT

2023
The Normative Significance of Axioloy

Hilary Greaves
University of Oxford

2022
Labor's Self-Liberation from Capital

A. J. Julius
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

2021
The Grounds of Political Legitimacy

Fabienne Peter
Warwick

2020
Network Epistemology: What Economics and Philosophy Tell Us About Learning in Groups (unfortunately, this event had to be cancelled due to the corona pandemic)

Kevin Zollman
Carnegie Mellon University

2019
Blaming and Forgiving - The Work of Morality

Miranda Fricker
City University of New York Graduate Center

2018
Climate Change and Obligations for Future Generations

Joseph Heath
University of Toronto

2017
Markets and Morality

Debra Satz
Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society (Stanford University)

2016
Preference, Prediction and Policy

Daniel M. Hausman
Herbert A. Simon and Hilldale Professor University of Wisconsin-Madison

2015
Left Libertarianism: Promise and Problems

Peter Vallentyne
Kline Chair in Philosophy University of Missouri-Columbia

2014
The Ethics and Economics of Climate Change

John Broome
Emeritus White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy, University of Oxford

2013
The Revolution in Just War Theory

Jeff McMahan
White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy, University of Oxford

2012
The Robust Demands of the Good

Philip Pettit
Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics
and Human Values at Princeton University

2011
Ethics and Public Policy

Jonathan Wolff
Professor of Political Philosophy, University College London

2010
Values, Norms, Decisions

Wlodek Rabinowicz
Professor (emeritus) of Philosophy, Lund University

2009
Collective Actions and the Commons: What Have We Learned?

Elinor Ostrom
Professor (emeritus) of Political Science, Indiana University
(Nobel Prize in Economics, 2009; †2012)