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06
NEWS
KANSAN.COM
Philosophy professor's article featured in prominent journal
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Armin Schulz, assistant professor of KU philosophy, recently had his article published in the "Journal of Economic Methodology."
KELLY CORDINGLEY
@KellyCordingley
Drawing on one science to help make progress in another is something Assistant Professor of KU Philosophy Armin Schulz focuses on for his research. He also did this with his recent article, "Firms, agency and evolution." This article was recently published in the "Journal of Economic Methodology."
Schulz's work looks at what prompts a firm or business to work as an agent, or an influential factor. Schulz initially thought firms would strive to be agents to avoid bankruptcy, but through his research he found something more pressing.
"It turns out what really matters for firm agency is if there's pressure to expand in the market. They're more
likely to act as an agent when they can have firm offspring," Schulz said. "That's what really drives firms to be agents of their own."
Schulz said he takes aspects from evolutionary biology and applies them to the social sciences.
"I'm interested in what happens when you take ideas and insights from one science and apply it to another," he said. "I'm interested in how this works and the challenges. I'm interested in trying to do some of the work and seeing what happens."
Trevor Swanson, a second-year doctoral student in the Social Psychology program, audited Schulz's Evolution of Cognition course. He said even though he wasn't enrolled in the course, he never missed a class.
"He's very,very intelligent,and very easy to talk to. He's very open to getting people's perspectives and he's really easy to engage with; he made the class exciting," Swanson said. "I looked forward to attending every week."
He said looking at how businesses grow, develop and change through an evolutionary biology perspective offers a new view.
"I think it's important to look at all kinds of aspects of human culture from all points of view," he said.
Schulz said there are two main aspects he would want someone to take away from his paper, regardless of their major or discipline.
"The hope is that someone takes away the excitement and the value of thinking outside the box and not saying, 'This is how they do it in my
field, so I'll stick to the rules of my field," he said. "The second thing, more about the paper is that it's possible that there's circumstances where you really want to see firms as having a life of their own.
"You've got to appreciate that sometimes when you join a company, that can have an effect on you. You're a part of a bigger thing that makes its own decisions."
The passion Schulz has for his work is something Swanson said was ever present in class, and that kept the students engaged.
"I was rewarded by taking the class," Swanson said. "He never showed that disinterest that I've seen some professors have when they just want to get back to their research and that the class they're teaching is a burden."
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