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Professor in Philosophy of Science, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge
Professor Anna Alexandrova’s research focuses on the philosophy of the social and psychological sciences with particular interests in two areas, models in economics and the science of well-being.
Within the area of Models, Explanation and Policy she is interested in understanding rational choice models originating in economics and now used all over social sciences.
Whilst her research in Well-Being, Happiness and Policy aims to investigate what makes a measure of happiness or well-being accurate and relevant to policy evaluation or practical deliberation?
Within this second strand of research she is currently developing a variantist theory of well-being, in which she suggests that ‘what it means to do well’ varies with practical context. This is in direct contrast to the standard picture of wellbeing in ethics with is an ‘all-things-considered’ evaluation of a person’s state. She argues that within science and policy this generalised assumption, whilst sometimes valid, often fails because what is required is a context specific evaluation. How well is a child on welfare doing? How well is a developing country doing? She hopes to use this theory to evaluate choices of constructs and measurement instruments in social and medical sciences.
Prior to her current role, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri, USA. In addition she is the Director of Studies in Philosophy at King’s College, Cambridge.
