Short Bio

C. Mantzavinos is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Athens. He is a member of the Academia Europaea – The Academy of Europe (Section of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies) and of the Académie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences (AIPS).

He serves as a Mercator Fellow at the DFG Research Training Group “Ethics and Epistemology of Science” at Bielefeld University/Leibniz University Hannover (2020-2024) and and is Correspondant Etranger at the Centre de Philosophie Contemporaine de la Sorbonne, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

His new book entitled The Constitution of Science is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press.

He is also the author of Wettbewerbstheorie (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1994), Individuals, Institutions, and Markets (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), Naturalistic Hermeneutics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), Explanatory Pluralism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), A Dialogue on Explanation (Heidelberg and New York: Springer, 2018), A Dialogue on Institutions (Heidelberg and New York: Springer, 2021) and the editor of Philosophy of the Social Sciences (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009). He has published numerous articles in scholarly journals in four languages, notably “Learning, Institutions, and Economic Performance” in Perspectives on Politics, 2004 (with Douglass C. North and Syed Shariq), “Explanatory Games” in The Journal of Philosophy, 2013, “Hermeneutik als rationale Methodenlehre der Interpretation” in Zeitschrift für philosophische Forschung, 2019 and “Science, Institutions, and Values” in the European Journal of Philosophy, 2021. He is the Philosophy Section Editor for the 2nd edition of the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences that has appeared in 2015.

Before his current appointment in Athens, he held the Chair of Economics and Philosophy at Witten/Herdecke University, Germany (2004-2011). He has also taught at Freiburg, Bayreuth, and Stanford and was a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn. He served as a Visiting Scholar at Harvard (twice), at Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris (twice) and has been a Visiting Fellow at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton. He holds two Ph.D degrees, in Economics and in Philosophy, both from the University of Tübingen.

  • Born in Athens, Greece (1968)
  • B.A. (Economics), University of Athens (1989)
  • Ph. D. (Economics), University of Tübingen (1992)
  • Assistant Professor, University of Freiburg (1995-1997)
  • Military Service, Greek Army (1997-1999)
  • Habilitation, Economics, University of Bayreuth (1999)
  • Privatdozent, Economics, University of Freiburg and University of Bayreuth (1999-2000)
  • Visiting Assistant Professor, Political Science, Stanford University (2000-2001)
  • Senior Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn (2001-2004)
  • Ph. D. (Philosophy), University of Tübingen (2004)
  • Visiting Scholar, Philosophy, Harvard University (2004)
  • Professor of Economics and Philosophy (Endowed Chair), Witten/Herdecke University (2004- 2011)
  • Chercheur Invité, Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris (2006) and (2008-2009)
  • Professor of Philosophy, University of Athens (2011- )

CV – Mantzavinos