Johanna Thoma

Employment

Since 03/2023, University of Bayreuth: Professor, Chair of Ethics (on maternity leave 11/2024- 8/2025)

08/2020-02/2023, London School of Economics: Associate Professor

09/2016-08/2020, London School of Economics: Assistant Professor

External Affiliations

Since 03/2023, Visiting Professor, London School of Economics

12/2022-present, External Member, Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy

Education

2012-2017, University of Toronto: PhD in Philosophy; Committee: Sergio Tenenbaum (advisor), Joseph Heath, Julia Nefsky, and Jonathan Weisberg; Passed without corrections in March 2017, awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal in May 2017, and the David Savan Dissertation Prize in 2018. Read my dissertation here.

2017, London School of Economics: Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (Associate Level)

2016, Stanford University: Visiting PhD Student (January-March)

2013, 2014, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München: Visiting PhD Student at the Munich Centre for Mathematical Philosophy (April-August)

2010-2012, Erasmus University Rotterdam: Research Master in Philosophy and Economics at the Erasmus Institute for Philosophy and Economics (EIPE) – Cum Laude

2007-2010, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University: BA (Hons) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) – 1st Class Honours

Main Publications:

• “Politics as Moral Choice” (with Jonathan Parry), in Colin Hay (ed.), What is Politics?, 2025.
• “Cost‐Effectiveness Analysis of Risky Health Interventions: Moving Beyond Risk Neutrality”, Ratio 38(4), pp. 219-227, 2025.
• “Preferences: What We Can and Can’t Do with Them”, Philosophia 52, pp. 1269–1278, 2024.
• “Social Science, Policy and Democracy”, Philosophy and Public Affairs 52(1), pp. 5-41, 2024.
• “Merely Means Paternalist? Prospect Theory and ‘Debiased’ Welfare Analysis”, Philosophy of Science 91(1), pp. 204-224, 2024.
• “The influence of private interests on research in behavioural public policy: A system-level problem” (with Liam Kofi Bright and Jonathan Parry), Behavioral and Brain Sciences 46, e150, 2023.
• “Taking Risks on Behalf of Another”, Philosophy Compass 18(3), pp. 1-13, 2023.
• “Risk Imposition by Artificial Agents: The Moral Proxy Problem” in Silja Vöneky, Philipp Kellmeyer, Oliver Müller and Wolfram Burgard (eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Responsible Artificial Intelligence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Cambridge University Press, 2022. 
• “Time for Caution,” Philosophy and Public Affairs 50 (1), pp. 50-89, 2022.
• “Weighing the Costs and Benefits of Public Policy: On the Dangers of Single Metric Accounting“,  LSE Public Policy Review 2(2), p.4, 2021.
• “On the Possibility of an Anti-Paternalist Behavioural Welfare Economics“, Journal of Economic Methodology 28 (4), pp. 350-363, 2021.
• “Folk Psychology and the Interpretation of Decision Theory”, Ergo 7, 2021.
• “Judgementalism about Normative Decision Theory”, Synthese 198, pp. 6767–6787, 2021.
• “In Defence of Revealed Preference Theory”, Economics and Philosophy 37 (2), pp. 163-187, 2021.
• “Instrumental Rationality Without Separability”, Erkenntnis 85, pp. 1219–1240, 2020.
• “No Escape from Allais: Reply to Buchak”, (with Jonathan Weisberg) Philosophical Studies 177 (9), pp. 2493-2500, 2020.
• “Risk Aversion and the Long Run”, Ethics 129 (2), pp. 230–253, 2019.
• “Decision Theory”, in The Open Handbook of Formal Epistemology, edited by Richard Pettigrew and Jonathan Weisberg, published online at PhilPapers, 2019.
• “Temptation and Preference-Based Instrumental Rationality”, in José Bermudez (ed.), Self-Control, Decision Theory, and Rationality, Cambridge University Press, 2018.
• “Risk Writ Large” (with Jonathan Weisberg), Philosophical Studies 174 (9), pp. 2369–2384, 2017.
  • Response by Lara Buchak: “Replies to Commentators”, Philosophical Studies 174 (9), pp. 2397-2414, 2017.
• “On the Hidden Thought Experiments of Economic Theory”, in Philosophy of the Social Sciences 46(2), pp. 129–146, 2016.
• “Bargaining and the Impartiality of the Social Contract”, in Philosophical Studies 172 (12), pp. 3335-3355, 2015.
• “The Epistemic Division of Labor Revisited”, in Philosophy of Science 82 (3), pp. 454-472, 2015.

Works Edited:

• INEM 2023 Conference Special Issue, Journal of Economic Methodology 32(3), 2025.
• Symposium on Anna Mahtani’s The Objects of Credence, Economics and Philosophy 40(2), 2024.

Book Reviews and Other Writing:

• “Introduction”, Special Issue of Journal of Economic Methodology on INEM23 in Venice, 32 (3), 2025.
• “On the Ethics of Boycotts”, P&E Blog, November 2024.
• “Introduction” (with Richard Bradley), symposium on Anna Mahtani’s The Objects of Credence, Economics and Philosophy 40(2), pp. 468-468, 2024.
• “Reply to Hausman”, in Economics and Philosophy 40(1), pp. 226-227, 2024.
• “Can Welfare Economics Avoid Paternalism after the Behavioural Turn?”, LSE Business Review, June 2022.
• “The Dangers of Single Metric Accounting”, LSE Covid-19 Blog, January 2022.
• “How should artificial agents  make risky choices on our behalf?”, LSE Philosophy Blog, June 2021.
• “Post-Covid 19 Economic Development and Policy”, Recommendations to the Scottish Economic Recovery Group, Head Author Paul Anand.
• “Economics Rules, Dani Rodrik, W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, xv + 253 pages.” Economics and Philosophy 34 (1), pp. 127-133, 2018. Penultimate version here.
• “Negotiating with myself”, LSE Philosophy Blog, June 2016.
• “Jarvie and Zamora-Bonilla. The SAGE Handbook of the Philosophy of Social Sciences” in Theoria 29 (2), pp. 311-315, 2014.
• “Van Bouwel. The Social Sciences and Democracy” in Theoria 27 (2), pp. 247-251, 2012.

Awards and Fellowships:

• Elizabeth D. Rockwell Prize for Best Article on Ethics, Leadership and Public Policy (2024)
• Visiting Fellow at the Global Priorities Institute, Oxford University (2022)
• Excellence in Education Award, London School of Economics (2018, 2020)
• Visiting Fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (2019)
• David Savan Dissertation Prize for the best philosophy dissertation at the University of Toronto (2018)
• Governor General’s Gold Medal for the best graduate student across the humanities and social sciences at the University of Toronto (2017)
• Connaught International Excellence Scholarship at the University of Toronto (2012-2017)
• Martha Lile Love Essay Award for the best graduate course paper, University of Toronto Philosophy Department, for “Temptation, Regret, and Risk-Taking” (2014)
• Research award from the University of Toronto’s Germany/Europe Fund (2014)
• Prof. Bruinsprijs at Erasmus University for the best research master student across all faculties (2012)
• Huygens Scholarship to study in the Netherlands, through the Netherlands Organisation for International Cooperation in Higher Education (2011-2012)
• Fellowship with the German Academic Foundation/Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (2008-2012)
  • Special Awards: Study Abroad Scholarship (2010-2012), BCG Ambassador Scholarship (2008-2010)
• College Scholarship at Lady Margaret Hall (2009-2010)
• Gavin Cameron Prize in Economics at Lady Margaret Hall (2008)

Service:

• President, International Network for Economic Method (since 2024)
• Deputy Chair, Ethics Committee of the University of Bayreuth (since 2023)
• Board Member, International Network for Economic Method (since 2022)
• Steering Committee, Formal Ethics Conference Series (since 2022)
• Deputy Women’s Representative, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Bayreuth (2023-2025)
• Senior Co-Chair, Women’s Caucus of the European Philosophy of Science Association (2019-2023)
• Editorial Roles: Associate Editor, Free&Equal (since 2025); Area Editor, Ergo (since 2025); Associate Editor, Politics, Philosophy & Economics (since 2023); Book Reviews Editor, Economics and Philosophy (2018-2023); Editorial Board Member, LSE Press (since 2020-2023); Consulting Editor, Theoria; Advisory Board Member, Kriterion.
• Journal Referee for: Analysis; Australasian Journal of Philosophy; British Journal for Philosophy of Science; Cambridge Journal of Economics; Canadian Journal of Philosophy; Dialogue; Diametrus; Economics and Philosophy; Economics Letters; Economic Thought; Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics; Ergo; Erkenntnis; Ethics; European Journal for Philosophy of Science; International Studies in the Philosophy of Science; Journal for General Philosophy of Science; Journal of Applied Logic; Journal of Applied Philosophy; Journal of Economic Methodology; Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy; Journal of Institutional Economics; Journal of Philosophy; Journal of Practical Ethics; Journal of Social Philosophy; Journal of Value Inquiry; Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy; Mind; The Monist; Moral Philosophy and Politics; Noûs; Philosophia; Philosophical Papers; Philosophical Psychology; Philosophical Quarterly; Philosophical Studies; Philosophy and Phenomenological Research; Philosophy of Science; Philosophy, Politics, and Economics; Ratio; Review of Social Economy; Synthese; Theory and Decision; Utilitas.
• Book Publisher Referee for: Bloomsbury Publishing; Oxford University Press, Palgrave, Routledge.
• Conference Organisation: European PPE Network Conference 2026; Biennial INEM Conference 2025.
• Conference Programme Referee for: Agent-Based Models in Philosophy: Prospects and Limitations Conference; British Society for Philosophy of Science Annual Conference; International Conference “Economic Philosophy”; European Network for the Philosophy of the Social Sciences; European PPE Network Conferences; Feminist Perspectives on PPE; Formal Epistemology Workshop; Formal Ethics Conference; INEM Conference; INEM Summer School; Lakatos@100 Conference; Saint Louis Conference for Reasons and Rationality; The Soul of Economics Conference.