Rationality is central to many disciplines, including philosophy, psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and economics. This may suggest that research in these fields should be conducted in close concert, but researchers in these disciplines unfortunately seldom have the chance to collaborate with and learn from one another. Philosophers theorize about what it means to be rational; psychologists empirically investigate whether people are rational; cognitive neuroscientists identify the neural correlates of rational thinking and decision-making; and economists develop mathematically precise models of rationality. The aim of the International Rationality Summer Institutes (IRSI) is to overcome this division by providing an environment in which students can learn the state-of-the-art research on rationality in each of these neighboring disciplines. The IRSI series is generously funded by the VolkswagenStiftung.

Within the IRSI series, after IRSI1 that focused on individual rationality, IRSI2 (Kloster Irsee, Germany, September 2 – 14, 2018) will focus on collective rationality. The goal of IRSI2 will be to build bridges across traditional disciplinary boundaries by presenting, over two intense weeks, state-of-the-art research on topics including the following:

• the concept of collective rationality and its relationship to individual rationality;
• the main models of, and empirical findings about, social reasoning, argumentation, and heuristics;
• prescriptive and descriptive theories of collective decision-making (in both strategic and non-strategic settings);
• and the main insights from social psychology, at the behavioral, cognitive, and neural levels.

IRSI2 will last twelve days from September 02 until 14, 2018, and it will take place in Irsee (Germany). The target group are doctoral students and younger postdocs interested in human rationality. We plan to host a group of about 40 students with a high level of international diversity and interdisciplinarity.

The faculty will be internationally leading experts in rationality research, who will teach courses at IRSI2 and pass on their expertise to a new generation of researchers. A highlight of the program will be the keynote talks.

Furthermore, students will have plenty of opportunities for professional and personal exchange. The program includes two Young Scientists’ Forums in which students present their own research projects, and there will be several social events.

IRSI2 is funded by