Philosophy and Economics celebrates 20th anniversary

With a two-year delay due to Corona, the Philosophy & Economics programme celebrated its twentieth anniversary on 4 July 2022. However, the focus of this celebratory event was not on the successful past two decades, but rather on the challenges of the next 20 years. The task of outlining a possible future for the Philosophy and Economics programme at the University of Bayreuth fell to Karolina Milewicz, a newly appointed professor in the field of Global Political Economy. In her lecture, Professor Milewicz recommended, on the one hand, supplementing the Bachelor's and Master's programmes with a structured doctoral programme in order to be able to survive in the international competition for the best students in the future. On the other hand, more emphasis should be placed on political science in teaching in the future, without, however, replacing the strong interlocking of philosophy and economics with a simple juxtaposition of three equivalent study programmes in philosophy, economics and political science, which is quite common at internationally renowned universities.  

The highlight of the event was the Adam Smith Award ceremony for Professor Ernst Fehr from the University of Zurich. Professor Fehr is not only one of the most internationally renowned academics in the field of economics, but is also known far beyond the boundaries of his discipline for his interdisciplinary research in the fields of behavioural and neuroeconomics. After a ceremonial awarding of the prize by Professor Thomas Scheibel, the Vice President for Internationalisation, Equal Opportunities and Diversity at the University of Bayreuth, Professor Fehr gave a very exciting lecture on the topic of "Economics as Science of Character Formation", in which he explored the question of whether intervention with children can influence their preferences and character formation. The focus was on whether voluntary mentorship or a corresponding school offer can reduce disadvantages of children due to their family or social background. Professor Fehr was able to show, based on various studies, that targeted interventions demonstrably increase both social preferences and character traits important for future development, such as patience and self-control. What was particularly surprising here was that simple and strongly time-limited measures can have a lasting effect on preferences and character traits.

Although important players had to cancel their participation in the evening at short notice due to the current Corona wave, the festive event was a great success and met with very broad interest, especially among the students of the University of Bayreuth. Bayreuth once again showed that it is a university location with a high international profile, where even critical scientific topics can be openly discussed with the involvement of students.               

All photos by Peter Kolb.