Welcome to the website of the Institute for Economic and Social History!

Economic and social history is a genuinely interdisciplinary research area, to be understood both as a sub-discipline of historical research and as a transdisciplinary historical economic and social science.

As a historical social science it is characterized by the critical use and reflection of the methods and theories of economics, demography, sociology and many disciplines in business studies to explore the economic and social dimensions of the past. As such, it can be understood as central to a socio-economic teaching and research program. At the institute, we are mainly dedicated to research and teaching on long-run developments in the world economy and individual economies as well as on banking and financial history.

A special organizational section of our institute is dedicated to business history. Our Philosophy Division goes beyond the interdisciplinary agenda of economic and social history and engages in research and teaching on, among other things, the conditions and limits of knowledge as such.  Additionally, our division for research on university history explores, in close cooperation with the University Archives, the history of this university itself within the wider context of university history research.

Lecture by Charles Travis - 15.05.2025 - 6.00 pm - D4.3.106

The Institute of Economic and Social History

cordially invites you to the upcoming lecture by Charles Travis on:

“Philosophical Paradoxes”

Professor Charles Travis is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at King’s College London. Over the course of his distinguished career, he has held visiting professorships at several universities, including the University of Michigan and Harvard University in the United States, the University of Toronto in Canada, the University of Stirling in the United Kingdom, and, most recently, Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. He currently holds an affiliation with the University of Porto in Portugal, where he plays a leading role in the global coordination of the Mind, Language, and Action Group (MLAG). Professor Travis’s research lies at the intersection of the philosophy of language, logic, and perception. He is renowned for his original interpretations of the work of Frege and Wittgenstein, as in “Perception: Essays on Frege” (Oxford University Press, 2013), “Unshadowed Thought” (Harvard University Press, 2000), and “Frege: The Pure Business of Being True” (Oxford University Press, 2021).

At WU, Professor Travis will address Wittgenstein’s and Putnam’s responses to Frege’s infamous paradox of predication in his lecture, “Philosophical Paradoxes.”

Venue: SE D4.3.106, WU Welthandelsplatz D4, 3rd Floor
Date: Thursday, 15 May 2025, 6:00 p.m.

For those unable to attend in person, the event will also be streamed via Zoom (no registration necessary)
Join the Zoom session here

If you have any further questions, please contact Gabriele.mras@wu.ac.at

We look forward to welcoming you.

Yours sincerely,

Gabriele Mras, Markus Lampe, Ursula Nemeth

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