Getting familiar what "philosophy of economics" is (see slides and audio)

Readings:

• Hausman, D.M.: Philosophy of Economics, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 

Additional Readings: (if you are interested)

• Foucault M.: The Birth of Biopolitics. Palgrave Macmillan 2008. Two: 17 January 1979, p. 27 - 50.
• The Guardian: Philosophy of science isn't pointless chin-stroking – it makes us better scientists.
• Stemwedel, J.D.: What is philosophy of science (and should scientists care)? 7. April 2014.

A) Deductive and Inductive Arguments

1. Logic, Argument, Deduction

Readings:

• Slides - Deductive and Inductive Arguments
• Slides - Aristoteles (Additional Slides from "Logic & Methodology")
• Slides - Hume
• Slides - Logical Empiricism

2. The problem of induction and the idea of confirmation vs. the aim of proving a theory to be true.

Additional Readings: (if you are interested)

• Hume, D.: Sceptical Doubts concerning the Operations of the Understanding; in: Hume, D.: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding; LA Salle (Illinois) 1990, p. 71-83.
  Slides - Hume (Additional Slides from "Logic & Methodology")
• Carnap, R.: The Vienna Circle. in: Schilpp, P. A. (Ed.): The Philosophy of Rudolf Carnap, Cambridge University Press 1887, p. 20-34. (only 3)
• Carnap, R.: On Protocol Sentences. in: Noûs, Vol. 21, No. 4, Dedication: To Alberto Coffa (Dec., 1987) Blackwell, pp. 457-470. (only pages 457, 458, 462 and 463)
• Carnap, R.: What is Logical Analysis of Science? in: Hanfling, O. (Ed.): Essential Readings in Logical Positivism; Oxford 1981, p. 112-129. (only I and III)
• Stroud, B.: Causation; in: Stroud, B.: Engagement and Metaphysical Dissatisfaction. Modality and Value; Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press 2011, p. 20-58.
• Carnap, R.: The Unity of Science; Bristol 1995, p. 42-52.
• Neurath, O.: Protokollsätze; in: Neurath, O.: Erkenntnis Band 3, 1932, S. 399-411.
• Schlick,M.: The Scientific Conception of the World: The Vienna Circle, in: Sarkar, S. (Ed.): The Emergence of Logical Empiricism: from 1900 to the Vienna Circle, New York : Garland Publishing 1996, p. 321-340.
• Passmore, J.: Logical Positivism; in: Edwards, P. (Ed.).: The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Vol. 5, New York: Macmill 1967, p. 52-57.
• Phillips, A.W.: The Relation Between Unemployment and the Rate of Change of Money Wage Rates in the United Kingdom, 1861-1957; in: Economica; Vol. 25, No. 10, Nov. 1958, p. 283-299.

B) "LAWS" AND "CAUSE"

Readings:

• Stroud, B.: Causation; in: Stroud, B.: Engagement and Metaphysical Dissatisfaction. Modality and Value; Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press 2011, p. 20-58.
• Slides - Laws & Cause

Additional Readings: (if you are interested)

• Davidson, D.: Causal Relations; in: Davidson, D.: Essays on Actions and Events; Oxford University Press Oxford 1980; p. 149-162.
• Lewis, D.: Causal Explanation; in: Philosophical Papers. Volume II; Chapter 22; Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press 1986; p. 214-240.
• Lewis, D.: Causation; in: The Journal of Philosophy, Volume 70, Issue 17, Seventieth Annual Meeting of the American Philosophical Association Eastern Division, 1973, p. 556-567.
• Mill, J.S.: Of the law of universal Causation; in: Mill, J.S.: A System of Logic Ratiocinative and Inductive. Routledge, London, Book III, Chapter V, p. 327-334, p. 388-406.
• Mill, J.S.: Of Abstraction, or the Formation of Conceptions; in: Mill, J.S.: A System of Logic Ratiocinative and Inductive. Liberty Fund, Canada, Book III, Chapter V, p. 649-662, p.735-830.

C) THE PRINCIPLE OF FALSIFIABILITY

1. Karl Popper's principle of falsifiability.

• Falsifiability in contrast to verifiability.
• What is the problem of the "demarcation principle" as suggested by the "Vienna Circle"?
• What is modus tollens?

2. The Problem of The Empirical Basis

• What are "basic sentences"?
• The distinction between justified, true, verified, falsified, verifiable, falsifiable, corroborated scientific statements.
• The theory / observation dichotomy.
• Is Popper's method of “falsifiability” really so much better than “verifiability”?

Readings:

• Popper, K.: Extracts from: The Logic of Scientific Discovery; London, New York 2004, p. 3-34, p. 54-56, p. 66-67, p. 76-85, p. 88-94, p. 264-275.
• Slides - Critical Rationalism
• Slides - Confirmation & Falsification (Additional Slides from "Logic & Methodology")

D) „CONSTRUCTIVE EMPIRICISM“ and „INSTRUMENTALISM“ 

Additional Readings: (if you are interested)

• van Fraassen, B.: The Pragmatics of Explanation; in: van Fraassen, B.: The Scientific Image, Oxford: Oxford University Press 1981, p. 112-157.

OVERVIEW OF PART 2 

Readings:

• Hausman, D.M.: Philosophy of Economics, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 

Application 1: THE AUSTRIAN AND THE CHICAGO SCHOOL

Readings:

• Friedman, M.: The Methodology of Positive Economics; in: Essays in Positive Economics, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1966, p. 3-16, 30-43.
• Chancellor, E.: The Long Shadow of Austrian School; in: NYRB.
• Kirzner, I.S.: Method, Process, and Austrian Economics; Lexington books 1983.
• Pavlik, J.: Austrian Economics and the Problems of Apriorism;in: Electronic Journal for Philosophy, 2006, p. 1-73.
• Smith, B.: Aristotle, Menger, Mises: An Essay in the Metaphysics of Economics; in: History of Political Economy, Annual Supplement to
  vol. 22 (1990), p. 263-288.
• Knight, F.H.: What is Truth" in Economics? in: Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, Vol. 48, No. 1 (Feb. 1940), p. 1-32.
• Knight, F.H.: Origins of the Chicago School of Economics; in: Economic Insights, p. 1-4.
• Leeson, P.T.; Boettke, P.J.: Was Mises Right? in: Review of Social Ecomomy, June 266, Vol. 64, No 2 (June 2006), Taylor & Francis, p. 247-265.
• Mill, J.S.: On the Definition and Method of Political Economy; in: The Philosophy of Economics. An Anthology, Cambridge University Press: 2007, p. 41-58.
• Paqué, K.H.: How far is Vienna from Chicago? An essay on the methodology of two schools of dogmatic liberalism, Kiel Working Paper, No. 209, p. 1-39.

   

Application 2: THE STATE OF ECONOMICS AS A SCIENCE

• Stiglitz, J.: Information and the Change in the Paradigm in Economics; Prize Lecture, 2001, p. 1-69.
• Sen, A.: Human Rights and Capabilities; in: Journal of Human Development, Vol. 6, No. 2, July 2005.
• Sen, A.: The Possibility of Social Choice; Nobel Lecture, Cambridge, 1998, p. 178-215.
• Sen, A.: Arrow and the impossibility theorem; p. 1-11.
• Arrow, K.J.: Social Choice and Individual Values; p. 1-90.
• Blaug, M.: The Methodology of Economics; Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
• Blaug, M.: Ugly Currents in Modern Economics; in: Mäki, U. (ed.):  Fact and Fiction in Economics, 35–36. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2002.;
• Hausman, D.: John Stuart Mill's Philosophy of Economics; in: The Philosophy of Science Association, The University of Chicago Press, Vol 48, No 3 (Sep. 1981), p. 363-385.
• Hausman, D.: Introduction, Capital Theory and Classical Value Theory, Inexact Laws; in: Capital, Profits, and Prices, New York: Columbia University Press, 1981, p. 2-21, 120-139.
• Hausman, D.: Inexactness in economic science? Karl Popper and falsificationism in economics, Imre Lakatos and economic methodology, Appendix; in: The Inexact and Separate Science of Economics, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1992, p. 123-149, 172-204,  281-329.
• Caldwell, B.: Logical Positivism,  Robbins versus Hutchison - The Introduction of Positivism in Economic Methodology, Friedman's Methodological Instrumentalism; in: Beyond Positivism: Economic Methodology in the Twentieth Century, London: George Allen and Unwin, 1982, p. 11-18, 99-138, 173-188.

Application 3: THE AUSTRIAN AND THE CHICAGO SCHOOL - ALTERNATIVES

• Piketty T.: Two Worlds; Inequality of Labor Income. Inequality of Capital Ownership; in: Capital in the Twenty- First Century, Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2014, p. 194-266.
• Wolff, R.P.: The Future of Socialism; in: Seattle University Law Review, Vol. 35, p. 1403-1428.
• Wolff, R.P.: A Critique and Reinterpretation of Marx's Labor Theory of Value; in: Philosophy & Public Affairs, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Spring, 1981), pp. 89-120
• Wolff, R.P.: Methodological Individualism and Marx: Some Remarks on Jon Elster, Game Theory, and Other Things; in: Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Dec., 1990), pp. 469-486
• Wolff, R.P.: New Departures in Marxian Theory; New York: Routledge 2006.
• Aldred, J.: This pandemic has exposed the uselessness of orthodox economics; in: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/05/pandemic-orthodox-economics-covid-19

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