Steve Ellis (Ph.D., Rutgers), Assistant Professor: Decision Theory, Philosophy of Economics, Philosophy of Mind, Ethics

My primary research interests are in decision theory and philosophy of economics.  I am currently working on a range of issues concerning instrumental rationality: its various forms, their applications in circumstances where multiple objectives are at stake, and evaluations of their role in social science.  Much of the “rationality debate” is not illuminating because partisans consider subtly different notions of instrumental rationality.  Still, there are serious issues about how, or even whether, actions can be rational in multiple objective contexts.  Nonetheless, current attempts to exclude rationality considerations from the discussion of action seem to fail.

My wife, Cindy Rogers, is an Economics Professor at OU.  See her and our lovely children, Marita and Flora, here: http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/R/Cynthia.Rogers-1/

Selected Publications

“Local Economic Development as a Game: The Role of Business Climate,” (with C. Rogers) Review of Regional Studies, 30:3 (Winter 2000): 315-330.

“What Economists (and Everyone Else) Should Think About Utility Theory,” Southwest Philosophy Review, 18:1 (January 2002): 95-104.