Talks, past and present

Links to a PDF of the presentation are included, when possible. Some of the talks are also available as an interactive QuickTime movie. (This allows you to step through the presentation as it was delivered and also allows animations of the simulations to be included.) The most recent talks are available as an interactive web page, created using reveal.js. The source materials for most of the earliest talks have been lost.

2025

• “The Future of Truth”, a panel discussion hosted by LSE Festival: Visions for the Future, featuring myself, Professor Charlie Beckett and Hardeep Matharu, chaired by Dr Paola Romero, 21 June 2025, LSE Campus, Marshall Building.

  (Skip forward to 6:30 to get to the start of the panel discussion!)

• “Social Identity and Strategic Vulnerability: Or, how social categories can be exploited for strategic purposes,” an invited talk at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) at the University of Bielefeld as part of the international workshop “The puzzle of social behavior: game theory and beyond,” organised by Prof. Wolfgang Spohn and Dr Mantas Radzvilas, 3–5 April 2025, Bielefeld, Germany.
• “The Open Society as an Enemy | Coffee Break research @ LSE,” a short LSE Event where I discuss some of the themes of my book in a short 20 minute format, 4 February 2025, Shaw Library, LSE.

2024

• “The Open Society as an Enemy: populism, Popper and pessimism post-1989,” an LSE Public Event featuring myself, Dr Ilka Gleibs and Professor Alan Manning in an author-meets-critics discussion to celebrate the publication of my book The Open Society as an Enemy, 2 December 2024, LSE Campus. [slides]

• “Evolutionary Game Theory and the Methodological Drift of ‘How-Possibily’ Explanation,” an invited talk in the Department of Philosophy, Fudan University, 11 September 2024, Shanghai, China.
• A series of five lectures on philosophical issues arising at the intersection between philosophy, social psychology, and sociology, given at the Institute of Science, Technology and Society, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 1–5 September 2014. The lectures were:
  1. “Personal identity, social identity,” 2 September 2024.
  2. “Action, Intention, and Description,” 3 September 2024.
  3. “Social Norms and Individual Choice,” 4 September 2024.
  4. “Social Constructivism and the Looping Effect,” 5 September 2024.
  5. “Cultural Evolution and Social Explanation,” 6 September 2024.
• “A Model of the Dynamics of Subgroup Influence on Boards: The Case of the IASB,” (with Dr Julia Morley), Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE), University of Limerick, Ireland, 27–29 June 2024.

2022

• “A model of the dynamics of subgroup influence on boards,” (co-authored with Dr. Julia Morley, LSE), a talk at the 82^nd Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Seattle, Washington, USA, 8 August 2022.

2019

• “Group Agency and the Dynamics of Intragroup Deliberation,” an invited talk at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universät, 19 June 2019.
• “Love”, “Belief”, and “Good and Evil”: three different talk/comedy routines as part of the Stand-Up Philosophy event at the Edinburgh Fringe, organised by Charlie Duncan Saffrey. These were held in The Ballroom at venue 170: The Counting House at 3pm on 16, 17, and 18 August 2019.
• “Heaven on Earth” an invited talk as part of a panel discussion on the nature of morality in HowTheLightGetsIn at the Hay-on-Wye Festival, on 27 May 2019, sponsored by the Institute for Art and Ideas.

• “How to… Make the Right Decision,” an invited talk at the Hay-on-Wye Festival, 27 May 2019, also sponsored by the Institute for Art and Ideas.

• Invited workshop on the paper “Collective Responsibility and the Dynamics of Intragroup Deliberation,” (co-authored with Julia Morley), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 10 April 2019.
• “What is it like to be a philosopher?” invited talk to the Philosophy, Politics and Economics students at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 10 April 2019.

2018

• Invited talk as part of a Workshop on Logic and Uncertainty, to be held at the Institute for Logic and Cognition at Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China, May 21-24, 2018. (Not held as the workshop was cancelled.)
• “Group Agency and the Dynamics of Intragroup Deliberation,” Invited talk as part of a workshop on Topics in Scientific Philosophy, Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of California, Irvine, 23–25 February 2018.

2017

• “Malcolm’s Maxim and Formal Models of Scientific Inquiry,” an invited keynote at a conference on “Formal Models of Scientific Inquiry,” Institute of Philosophy II, Ruhr-University Bochum, 18–19 July 2017.
• “Extra-deliberational Influences on Expert Decision Making,” (with Julia Morley), at a workshop on “Group decision-making in scientific expert committees,” sponsored by the Tilburg Center for Moral Philosophy, Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, Tilburg University, 12–13 April 2017.
• “The Evolution of Incredible Threats,” an invited talk as part of the “Bargaining and Justice” symposium, at the Philosophy, Politics and Economics Society meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana, 16–19 March 2017.

2015

• “Evolutionary Game Theory: Stability, Convergence and Complexity,” an invited talk at the Decisions, Games and Logic conference, London School of Economics and Political Science, 17–19 June 2015.
• “Getting Better,” an invited talk at the St. Andrew's Philosophy Society, University of St. Andrews, 20 April 2015.

2014

• “The Structural Evolution of Morality,” an invited keynote, Conference on Agent-Based Modeling in Philosophy. Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München, Munich, Germany, 11–13 December 2014.
• “Cheap Talk, Reinforcement Learning and the Emergence of Cooperation,” a conference presentation at the Twenty-Fourth Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, The Westin Michigan Avenue, Chicago, 6–9 November 2014.
• “Game Theory and the Evolution of Morality,” an invited talk at Fudan University, School of Philosophy, Shanghai, China, 15 September 2014.
• “Temporal Discounting and the Evolution of Language,” an invited talk at the China Agricultural University, Beijing, 9 September 2014.
• A series of five lectures on philosophical and methodological issues in contemporary social science, Institute of Science, Technology and Society Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 1–5 September 2014. The lectures were:
  1. “Geographical Determinism and the Shape of History,” 1 September 2014.
  2. “The Foundations of Human Sociality,” 2 September 2014.
  3. “Evolutionary Psychology,” 3 September 2014.
  4. “Evolutionary Game Theory and the Spread of Social Norms,” 4 September 2014.
  5. “Ethics as Social Engineering,” 5 September 2014.
• “The classical game theory / evolutionary game theory analogy,” an invited talk at a two-day workshop on Metaphors and Analogies in Evolutionary Biology, Department of Philosophy, University of Bristol, 17–18 June 2014.
• “Epistemic Landscapes and Optimal Search,” Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München, Munich, Germany, 30 April 2014.
• “The Evolution of Cooperation in Local Interaction Models,“ an invited talk at the 3rd conference on Games, Interaction, Reasoning, Learning, and Semantics; Lund University, Department of Philosophy and Cognitive Science, 28–30 April 2014.

2013

• “The Open Society as an Enemy,” Philosophy@LSE public lecture, Wolfson lecture theatre, London School of Economics, 3 December 2013.

• “Epistemic Landscapes and Optimal Search,” Social Epistemology workshop, Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France, 25 November 2013.
• “Getting Better,” Workshop in honour of Philip Kitcher, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, 7 November 2013.
• “A Dynamic Model of Social Norm Formation in the Ultimatum Game,” Tilburg Workshop on Social Norms, Tilburg University, The Netherlands, 25 October 2013.
• “Cheap Talk, Reinforcement Learning, and the Emergence of Cooperation,” The Fourth Conference of the European Philosophy of Science Association, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, 28–31 August 2013.
• “The Evolution of Cooperation in Local Interaction Models,” Vancouver Workshop on Human Cooperation, University of British Columbia, 6–8 June 2013.
• “Comments on ‘What Sally Haslanger's Daughter Should Believe’”, LSE-Bayreuth Conference, London School of Economics, 2 May 2013.

• “Epistemic Landscapes and Optimal Search,” U.C. Irvine Social Dynamics conference, Irvine, California, 16 March 2013.
• “Of Two Minds: Reflections on Dual-Systems Theory and Moral Philosophy,” ZiF Workshop on “Putting Dual-System Theories to the Test – Insights from Philosophy, Psychology and Neuroscience,” Bielefeld University, 31 January - 2 February 2013.

2012

• “Preferential Attachment and the Search for Successful Theories” at the Twenty-Third Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, 15 – 17 November 2012, San Diego, California.
• “Virtual Holism,” LSE Workshop on Reductionism and Non-Reductionism in the Social Sciences. 7–9 June 2012.
• “Comments on ‘Lamarck Strikes Back’,” LSE Rerum Causae Graduate Student Philosophy Conference, 30 April 2012.

2011

• “The Evolution of Morality,” Forum for European Philosophy: Consilience. This was a public debate on the nature of morality with Dr Andrew Pinsent and Dr Keith Jensen, held on 22 November 2011, in the Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building, LSE.
• “Social Reinforcement and the Search for Successful Theories,” Biennial Meeting of the European Philosophy of Science Association, Athens, Greece, 7 October 2011.
• “What We Talk About When We Talk About Morality,” tutorial at the NEH Institute on Computer Simulations in the Humanities, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 10 June 2011.
• “Signalling and Reinforcement Learning in Games,” Workshop on Games, Social Contract and Equilibrium Selection, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy, 26–27 May 2011.
• “Learning to Signal in a Dynamic World,” Author Meets Critics session for Brian Skyrms’ Signals: Evolution, Learning and Information at the Pacific Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, 20 April 2011.

2010

• “Decision Theory Meets the Witch of Agnesi,” British Society for the Philosophy of Science, 18 October 2010.
• “Why the Angels Cannot Choose,” Workshop on Decision Theory, sponsored by the LSE Choice Group.
• Tutorial on evolutionary game theory, the replicator dynamics, and social networks, as part of Formal Ethics Week at the University of Gronigen. 7 – 10 September 2010.
• Invited talk in the “Philosophy Meets Economics - Economics Meets Philosophy” conference at the University of Osnabrueck. 13 May - 15 May, 2010.
• “Decision Theory Meets the Witch of Agnesi,” LSE Philosophy department Popper Seminar, 4 May 2010.
• “A nudge is not a push,” comments at the LSE Rerum Causae Graduate Student Philosophy Conference, 12 February 2010.

2009

• Comments on “Higher-order information and Belief Dynamics: A New Perspective on Agreement Results,” joint LSE-Groningen conference, London School of Economics, December 2009.
• “The Cultural Evolutionary Link between Moral Intuitions and Rational Considerations,” German Society for Analytic Philosophy, Bremen, Germany, September 2009.
• “Some problems for evolutionary game theoretic explanations of language,” Annual Meeting of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association, Vancouver, British Columbia, April 2009.
• “Evolution and the asymmetric Nash bargaining game,” invited talk at a conference on Evolution and the Social Contract, University of California, Irvine, March 2009.

2008

• “Reply to Critics,” Author Meets Critics session for The Structural Evolution of Morality, Twenty-first Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 2008.
• “Social deliberation: Nash, Bayes and the vindication of a 19th-century French Sociologist,” invited talk in a conference on the use of computer simulations in social epistemology, Leuven, Germany, October 2008.
• “Computer simulations in game theory and philosophy.” Invited talk in a colloquium on “Simulating Social Phenomena” at XXI. Deutscher Kongress für Philosophie - Lebenswelt und Wissenschaft, September 15–19, at University Dusiburg-Essen, September 2008. [Also available to download as an interactive QuickTime movie, with animations.]
• “The Evolution of Social Norms: From Experiment to Simulation, and Back Again.” Invited talk at the Interdisciplinary Summer School on Social Norms, San Sebastian, Spain, July 2008. [Also available for download as an interactive QuickTime movie, with animations.]
• “The Structural Evolution of Morality,” Research seminar of the Faculty of Management and Economics, Witten/Herdecke University, Germany, June 2008. [Also available for download as an interactive QuickTime movie, with animations.]
• “Optimality, Robustness, and the Handicap Principle.” Author Meets Critics session for Jean-Louis Dessalles’s Why We Talk: The Evolutionary Origins of Language, Central Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, April 2008.
• “Local Interactions and the Dynamics of Rational Deliberation.” A festschrift in celebration of Brian Skyrms’s 70th birthday. University of California, Irvine, March 2008.
• “The Structural Evolution of Morality,” Philosophy department colloquium series, University of Bristol, January 2008. [Also available for download as an interactive QuickTime movie, with animations.]
  

2007

• “‘From Each According to His Ability’: The Evolution of Respect for Needs,” Workshop on Evolutionary Theory, University of Bristol, November 2007.
• “‘From Each According to His Ability’: The Evolution of Respect for Needs”, Choice Group, London School of Economics, June 2007.
• “The Evolution of Retribution: Bargaining Behaviour and the Ultimatum Game,” Popper Seminar of the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, London School of Economics, January 2007.

2006

• “Leaving the State of Nature,” Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method Weekend Retreat, London School of Economics, Cumberland Lodge, November 2006.
• “Artificial Virtue: The Structural Evolution of Morality,” Choice Group, London School of Economics, February 2006.

2005

• “Artificial Virtue: The Structural Evolution of Morality,” University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, October 2005.
• “Game Theory, Undecidability, and Strategic Learning”, “Evolutionarily Stable Strategies and the Replicator Dynamics”, and “Local Interaction Models, Mutation, and Patterns of Convergence”, three talks all given at the Formal Epistemology Workshop 2005, University of Texas, Austin, May 2005.
• “Local Interaction Models and Multiplayer Games,” Workgroup on the Dynamics of Social Structure, Santa Fe Institute, April 2005.
• “Evolutionary Game Theory as a Tool for the Moral Philosopher,” UNC – Duke Conference on Naturalized Ethics, February 2005.

2004

• ”Social Networks and Multiplayer Games,” Philosophy of Science Association Nineteenth Biennial Meeting, November 2004.
• “Leaving the State of Nature,” Philosophy, Politics and Economics Lecture, University of Pennsylvania, November 2004. [Also available as a QuickTime movie.]
• “Structure, Evolution, and the Stag Hunt,” Author Meets Critics session for Brian Skyrms’s The Stag Hunt and the Evolution of Social Structure, Annual Meeting of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association, March 2004. [Also available as a QuickTime movie.]
• “Evolution in Law and Biology,” Faculty Seminar at the Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, New York, February 2004. [Also available as a QuickTime movie.]

2003

• “The Structural Evolution of Morality: Examples and Reflections,” Annual Meeting of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association, December 2003.
• “Probability and Evolutionary Game Theory,” invited lecture at the 2003 International Summer School in Philosophy, Probability, and the Special Sciences, University of Konstanz, Germany, July 2003.
• “Local Interaction Models of Evolutionary Games,” STICERD, London School of Economics, May 2003.
• “Logic and the Philosophy of Social Sciences,” Workshop on Logic and Philosophy, University of Trento, Italy, March 2003.
• “What We Talk About When We Talk About Morality,” Inaugural Meeting of the Society for Empirical Ethics, Annual Meeting of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association, San Francisco, March 2003.

2002

• “Random Boolean Networks and Evolutionary Game Theory,” Philosophy of Science Association Eighteenth Biennial Meeting, November 2002.
• “Can We Differentiate Cultural and Biological Evolution?” Evolutionary Discussion Group, London School of Economics, October 2002.
• “Bounded Rationality and the Ultimatum Game,” Fourth European Congress on Analytic Philosophy (sponsored by the European Society for Analytic Philosophy), Lund, Sweden, 2002.

2001

• “Bounded Rationality and the Ultimatum Game,” Choice Colloquium (sponsored by the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method), London School of Economics,  December 2001.
• “The Evolution of Cooperation,” Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method Weekend Retreat, London School of Economics, Cumberland Lodge, November 2001.
• “Comments on ‘The Import of Auxiliary Theories of the Instrument: A Bayesian-Network Approach’,” Annual Meeting of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association,  March 2001.

2000

• “The Evolution of Distributive Justice,” Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, London School of Economics, December 2000.
• “The Evolution of Distributive Justice,” University of California-San Diego, October 2000.
• “Lattice Models of the Nash and Ultimatum Game,” Computing & Philosophy Conference, Carnegie Mellon University, August 2000.
• “Artificial Justice,” Artificial Life VII: The Seventh International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems, Reed College, Portland, Oregon, August 2000.
• “The Evolution of Distributive Justice,” Department of Philosophy, University of California-Irvine, July 2000.
• “Game Theory and Evolutionary Contractarianism,” invited talk sponsored by the Departments of Philosophy, Biology, and Mathematics, Lewis & Clark College, January 2000.

1999

• “The (Spatial) Evolution of the Equal Split,” Complex Systems Summer School, Santa Fe Institute, June 1999.
• “Bargaining with Neighbors,” (joint presentation with Brian Skyrms), Southern California Economic Theory Conference, February 1999.

1995 (as an undergraduate)

• “Empirica Mathematica: Kitcher’s Theory of Mathematical Knowledge,” Oregon Academy of Science, Portland, Oregon, 1995.
• “A Defense of A Priori Mathematical Knowledge,” Northwest Regional Conference of Undergraduate Philosophy, 1995.