Faculté des lettres Faculté des lettres

Chargés et Chargées de cours

Emma Tieffenbach

Chargée de Cours

I am a lecturer and a researcher at the university of Geneva, where I teach on the Ethics of Giving. Since August 2020, I am working on a new research project. The general topic is the economic theory of philanthropy, Aka the "warm-glow" theory of giving. Here is the abstract of that project:As many studies show, giving feels good, a phenomenon dubbed as a "warm-glow feeling". Given the number of works dedicated to that feeling, it is safe to conclude that, whatever the warm glow is, it is important. So what is it? Surprisingly, the question has hardly been  addressed so far. Absent a clear understanding of the nature of the warm glow, the notion is doomed to remain as mysterious as the philanthropic behaviors it is supposed to explain. The scientific relevance of the warm glow from giving is actually uncertain, which is why this project presses for a better understanding of the phenomenon.

Current and past positions

  • 2020-2021: Collaboratrice scientifique II (Faculté de médecine)
  • 2020- : Chargée de cours (Dpt of philosophy, Unige)
  • 2019: Chargée de cours (Dpt of Philosophy, Unil)
  • 2019: Chargée de cours (Dpt of philosophy, Unifr)
  • 2018-2019: Academic Fellow (Centre en Philanthropie, Unige)
  • 2016-2017: Collaboratrice scientifique II (Dpt of philosophy, Unige)
  • 2015-2016: Post-doctoral researcher (Dpt of philosophy, Unibas)
  • 2013-2016: Post-doctoral researcher, SNF Marie-Heim Vögtlin (Dpt of philosophy, CISA, Unige)
  • 2012-2013: Post-doctoral researcher (Dpt of philosophy, Unige)
  • 2007-2010: Chargée de cours (SHS, Philosophy, EPFL)
  • 2008-2009: Chargée de cours (SHS, Philosophy, Unine)
  • 2005-2008: Scientific collaborator (Dpt of Sociology, Unige)
  • 2001-2002: Visiting Scholar (Columbia University, New-York City)
  • 2002-2003: Visiting Scholar (Georgetown University, Washington DC)
  • 2000-2002: Chargée de recherche (EHESS, Paris)
  • 1998-1999: Assistante suppléante (Dpt of History, Unige)

Research projects

  • 2020-2021 THE WARM GLOW PROJECT, with the Geneva Centre in philanthropy, under the supervision of Pr Samia Hurst, Director of the Institute Ethics, History, Humanities (IEH2), Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva.
  • 2016-2017 BENIGN AND HARMFUL NUDGES: THE ETHICS OF BEHAVIOURAL INSIGHTS, SNFS, Philosophy Dpt, CISA, University of Geneva.
  • 2013-2015 UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF ECONOMIC VALUE, SNFS Project, Marie Heim Vögtlin Program, philosophy Dp, CISA, University of Geneva
  • 2005-2008 INVISIBLE-HAND EXPLANATIONS, SNFS, University of Geneva.

 Peer-reviewed publications

  • 2020. "Redistribuer le sang: le confisquer, le vendre ou le donner?" in (Jean-Daniel Tissot et Philippe Schneider, Le don dans le sang, Témoignages et analyses, Lausanne: Editions Favre, pp. 223-252.
  • 2019. "La science du don, le Warm-glow Feeling", Une theorie de l’altruisme impur", Expert Focus, 116-120.
  • 2018. Review of Francesco Guala, Understanding Institutions, The Science and Philosophy of Living Together, Princeton University Press, 2016, 222 p. in Annals of Luigi Einaudi Foundation, vol LI(3).
  • 2018. Petit traité des valeurs (avec Julien Deonna), Paris: Edition d’Ithaque, “Sciences et Métaphysique”.
  • 2018. The explanatory power(s) of Unintended consequences, in Adriana Mica, Arkadiusz Peisert, Jan Winczorek (ed.), Sociology of the Invisible Hand, Peter Lang.
  • 2018. "L’utilité", in Julien Deonna & Emma Tieffenbach (ed.), Petit traité des valeurs, Paris : Edition d’Ithaque, collection “sciences et métaphysique”, pp. 297-305.
  • 2018. "Introduction", in Julien Deonna & Emma Tieffenbach (ed.), Petit traité des valeurs, Edition d’Ithaque, collection “sciences et métaphysique”, pp. 9-13.
  • 2018. Glossaire des valeurs, in Julien Deonna & Emma Tieffenbach (ed.), Petit traité des valeurs, Paris : Edition d’Ithaque, collection “sciences et métaphysique”, pp. 331-335.
  • 2017. "The Metaphysics of Economic Exchanges" (with Olivier Massin), in Journal of Social Ontology, 3(2): 167–205.
  • 2016. L’envie (with Florian Cova) in David Sander, Nathalie Herschdorfer (ed.), Emotions, Munro’s Books.
  • 2016. "Trades and incommensurability" (with Nir Eyal), in The Monist, 99, 387-405.
  • 2016. "The Virtual Reality of the Invisible Hand", in Social Science Information, 55 (1), 115-134.
  • 2014. "On the cost of Shame", in International Journal of Public Health and Management, 3 (7), 408-411.
  • 2014. "Qu’est-ce que l’argent?" in O. Massin et A. Meylan (ed.), Aristote chez les Helvètes, Paris : Edition d’Ithaque, collection “Sciences et Métaphysique”.
  • 2013. "Invisible-Hand Explanations": From Blindness to Lack of We-ness. In Social Science Information 52 (3), 450-470.
  • 2011. The Sounds of Institutional Facts, in Philosophical Papers Dedicated to Kevin Mulligan, Anne Reboul (ed.).
  • 2010. "Searle and Menger on Money", in Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 40 (2), 191-212.
  • 2003. "De la main invisible à la Ruse de la Raison: traduction romantique d’une idée des lumières", in Giovanni Bardazzi, Alain Grosrichard (textes réunis par), Dénouement des Lumières et Inventions romantiques, Genève, Droz, 47-67.
  • 2002. "La philosophie de l’histoire d’Edmund Burke (1729-1797): de l’ordre spontané à l’anarchie méthodique", in Annales Benjamin Constant 26, 176-206.