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Gil Hersch

Gil Hersch, Assistant Professor

Gil Hersch, Postdoctoral Researcher
Gil Hersch, Assistant Professor

Department of Philosophy
220 Stanger Street
Blacksburg, VA 24061
hersch@vt.edu

Gil Hersch is an assistant professor in the Virginia Tech Department of Philosophy and a core faculty member in the Program in PPE (Philosophy, Politics, and Economics). Hersch specializes in ethical issues at the intersection of economics and policy, especially as they relate to happiness and well-being.

  • Social and Political Philosophy
  • Philosophy of Economics
  • Applied Ethics 
  • PhD in Philosophy, UC San Diego, 2016
  • MA in Philosophy, UC San Diego, 2013
  • BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE), Hebrew University in Jerusalem Israel, 2008    
  • Institute for Philosophy & Public Policy Affiliate
  • Coming Home Dialogues Discussion Leader
  • Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Society Member
  • APA Committee on Academic Career Opportunities and Placement Member

Journal Articles

"Well-Being Coherentism", The British Journal for Philosophy of Science, forthcoming.

"The Need for Governmental Inefficiency in Plato's Republic", Journal of History of Economic Thought, forthcoming.

“No Theory-Free Lunches in Well-Being Policy”, The Philosophical Quarterly, 70(278), 2020: 43-64.

“You Can Bluff but You Should Not Spoof”, Business and Professional Ethics Journal, 39(2), 2020.

“The Narrowed Domain of Disagreement for Well-Being Policy” Public Affairs Quarterly, 32(1), 2018: 1-19.

“Ignoring Easterlin; Why Easterlin’s Correlation Findings Need Not Matter to Policy” Journal of Happiness Studies, 19(8), 2018: 2225-2241.

“Educational Equipoise and the Educational Misconception; Lessons from Bioethics” Teaching and Learning Inquiry, 6(2), 2018: 1-15.

The Irrelevance of Unsuccessful Traders; A Commentary on Alasdair MacIntyre (2015), “The Irrelevance of Ethics” Business Ethics Journal Review, 6(8), 2018: 41-46.

“Motivationally Balancing Policy”, SOCIETY, 53(3), 2016: 264-268.

“Experimental Economics’ Inconsistent Ban on Deception” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 52, 2015: pp. 13-19

“Can an Evidential Account Justify Relying on Preferences for Well-Being Policy?” Journal of Economic Methodology, 22(3), 2015: pp. 280-291

Book Chapters

From Models to Experiments” (with Daniel Houser) in James M. Buchanan: A Theorist of Political Economy and Social Philosophy. Ed. Richard E. Wagner, 2018: 921-937. London: Palgrave Macmillan.   

Book Reviews

"Law for Sale: A Philosophical Critique of Regulatory Competition, by Johanna Stark. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 210 pp.", Business Ethics Quarterly, 30(3), 2020.              

  • Well-Being Coherentism: Wake Forest University Eudaimonia Institute 2019
  • No Theory-Free Lunches in Well-Being Policy: 45th annual Philosophy of Science Conference, Dubrovnik 2018, Brookings Institute Workshop on New Directions and Challenges in Well-being Research, Washington 2017
  • The Role of Well-Being Indicies in Policy: Virginia Tech Center for Public Administration & Policy, Alexandria 2017, Brookings Institute Workshop on New Directions and Challenges in Well-being Research, Washington 2016
  • Deception in Experimental Social Sciences: WVU Workshop on Experimental Political Science, Morgantown 2016
  • PHIL 4884/PSCI 4884/ECON 4884 Advanced Topics in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics
  • PHIL 4304: Political Philosophy
  • PHIL 2894/PSCI 2894/ECON 2894: Introduction to Philosophy, Politics, and Economics
  • PHIL 2304: Global Ethics
  • PHIL 1304: Morality and Justice
  • PHIL 3314: Ethical Theory

Featured Books

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