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Category Archives: Philosophy
Two Different Approaches to Economics and One Approach to Pseudo-Economics
In the comments to my piece on Janet Yellen the hypocrisy of my position was pointed out, as it so often is, by a certain reader of this blog. What was my hypocrisy on this particular occasion? It was the … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Theory, Philosophy
26 Comments
I’m Pointing at the Moon, You’re Looking at My Finger: Janet Yellen on Post-Keynesian Economics
Here’s an interesting fact that I’ll bet many of you didn’t know: the current head of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, wrote a short paper in 1980 examining the theories of the Post-Keynesians. You can find it here. The paper … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Policy, Economic Theory, Philosophy, Psychology
26 Comments
Cody Wilson and the Language of Power
I don’t usually do moral philosophy on here; except, that is, when I’m pointing out the implicit moral philosophy inherent in certain economic concepts. However, I recently came across something that I found so interesting that I felt I had … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy
11 Comments
Keynes and the “Fallacy of Aggregation” in Probability Theory
I recently came across a very nice lecture series by the philosopher Patrick Maher on Keynes’s discussions of probability (scroll down to the three Keynes lectures in this link — the other lectures are also worth a browse for those … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Statistics and Probability
8 Comments
Marginalist Microeconomics: The Path to Totalitarian Tyranny
Kevin Hoover, although not generally well-known in Post-Keynesian circles, is easily one of the most interesting economists writing on epistemology and ontology today. He was originally an applied macroeconomist but, like anyone who is remotely philosophically literate, he quickly began … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Policy, Economic Theory, Philosophy, Politics
9 Comments
A Man’s World: Is Gender the Key Explanatory Factor Behind the Modelling Tendency in Economics?
Some time ago I made a remark that the bias toward mathematical modelling in economics might have to do with the male bias of the discipline. More specifically, I argued that models provided a stand-in for the economist’s own person … Continue reading
Some Metaphors Are Better Than Others: Deirdre McCloskey and the Capital Debates
Well, my previous piece on the work of Deirdre McCloskey generated some discussion. I just thought that perhaps I should lay out what I find problematic about her work. The problem with McCloskey is that she practices a sort of … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Theory, Philosophy
5 Comments
Empty Rhetoric: On the Work of Deirdre McCloskey
Yesterday I read a short pamphlet by Deirdre McCloskey entitled The Secret Sins of Economics. You can get it here for free in PDF form. A friend of mine told me a while ago that I would like McCloskey. He … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Theory, Philosophy
13 Comments
BBC Radio Program on George Berkeley
BBC Radio 4 have released a fantastic discussion with three contemporary Berkeley scholars as a podcast on their website. I cannot recommend the discussion enough. I want to here run through some of the points raised by the commentators in … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy
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Marginalist Microeconomics is a Highly Normative Ethical Doctrine
In a recent post Lord Keynes raises the question of the so-called ‘law’ of diminishing marginal utility. The ‘law’ states that we will derive ever diminishing satisfaction from the acquisition of a good or service. Lord Keynes notes that this … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Theory, Philosophy, Psychology
22 Comments
Fixing the Economists 