Welcome!
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I am Professor of Philosophy and History of Economics at the Institute of Philosophy at Leibniz University Hannover, Germany. I serve as co-editor-in-chief of the European Journal for Philosophy of Science and of the Journal of the History of Economic Thought. I am also co-editor of the Cambridge Elements series on History of Economics.
I do research on topics in history and philosophy of economics. Currently, I am particularly interested in the questions of why and how models are transferred across different domains and in which way such model transfers can lead to scientific progress. This project entitled MODEL TRANSFER (running from 2023 to 2029) is funded by an ERC Starting Grant. With my team, we study those questions with a particular focus on model transfer in economics and do so by using a variety of methods from philosophy, sociology, and history of science. I apply traditional approaches - such as case studies - but also quantitative-empirical methods in history and philosophy of the social sciences; I do archival research in my historical research; and I conduct long interviews to get into close contact with scientific practitioners. I have also an active interest in questions around the gender gap in philosophy and closely collaborate with sociologists and psychologists to study them. I am an external member of the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy at LMU Munich, an affiliated member of the Center for Higher Education and Science Studies (CHESS) at the University of Zurich, and an affiliated fellow with the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University as well as with the URPP 'Equality of Opportunity' at the University of Zurich. At the same time, I am a board member of the International Network of Economic Methodology, an associate editor of the Journal of Economic Methodology, and an editorial board member of Oeconomia - History, Methodology, Philosophy, of the journal Philosophy of the Social Sciences, and of the book series with De Gruyter, History of Philosophy and Science. I find me on @cherfeld.bsky.social and you can find information about our research on MODEL TRANSFER here and here @modeltransfer.bsky.social |
Credit: Patrice Sager
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News
- Our paper, together with Edoardo Peruzzi, on Translation as a Modification Strategy in Model Transfer has just been accepted for publication in Synthese.
- Our co-authored book chapter with Edoardo Peruzzi on Model Transfer as a Case of Interdisciplinary Research in Science, is forthcoming in the edited volume Ethics of the Sciences: New Normative Foundations for Academic Practice (Palgrave). Download the preprint here: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/29319.
- I am thrilled that my book Conversations of Rational Choice is finally out with Cambridge University Press. Order a copy here.
- I have written a short summary of my forthcoming book Conversations on Rational Choice for the Newsletter of the Royal Economic Society. Please find it here.
- I am extremely honoured for having been appointed Co-Editor-in-Chief, together with my colleague Sam Fletcher, of the European Journal for Philosophy of Science. We have started our term on January 1, 2026.
- We have a couple of newly accepted papers on model transfer, the usefulness of network analysis in &HPS generally and for studying model transfer particularly, discussing the specific account of economic models economists such as Itzhak Gilboa, David Schmeidler and colleagues defend, and on the conditions under which economists in the 1950s exchanged tools (and models) with other behavioral sciences. Find details here.
- I have taken up my role as Co-Editor of the Journal of the History of Economic Thought, alongside my colleagues Harro Maas, Alexandre Mendes Cunha and Erwin Dekker. I am honored and excited!
- On April 1, 2023 I started my ERC Project 'Model Transfer and Its Challenges in Science: The Case of Economics' at the University of Hannover. Here is a short project description and here is the project website.
- I am excited to have won the Karl-Heinz Hoffmann Prize 2021, which is awarded annually by the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Here is the press release and laudatio.
- Here is an interview about some of my work that I did with Scott Scheall, Eduardo Serra and Carlos Eduardo Suprinyak for their Podcast 'Smith and Marx Walk Into A Bar: A History of Economics Podcast'.
