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29Social scientific naturalism and experimentation in economicsIn Uskali Mäki, Dov M. Gabbay, Paul Thagard & John Woods (eds.), Philosophy of Economics, North Holland. pp. 287. 2012.
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63Causal and Explanatory AsymmetryPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1982 (Volume One: Contributed Papers). 1982.This paper asks why causal asymmetries should give rise to explanatory asymmetries. One way to give some rationale for the asymmetries of causal explanation is to adopt a pragmatic view of explanation and to stress the fact that causes can be used to manipulate their effects. This paper argues, however, that when one recognizes that causal asymmetry is fundamentally an asymmetry of "connectedness", one can see how causal asymmetry leads to an objective difference between explanations in terms of…Read more
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186John Stuart mill's philosophy of economicsPhilosophy of Science 48 (3): 363-385. 1981.John Stuart Mill regards economics as an inexact and separate science which employs a deductive method. This paper analyzes and restates Mill's views and considers whether they help one to understand philosophical peculiarities of contemporary microeconomic theory. The author concludes that it is philosophically enlightening to interpret microeconomics as an inexact and separate science, but that Mill's notion of a deductive method has only a little to contribute.
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11Review of C. L. ten (ed.), Mill's on Liberty: A Critical Guide (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2009 (6). 2009.
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133When Jack and Jill Make a Deal*: DANIEL M. HAUSMANSocial Philosophy and Policy 9 (1): 95-113. 1992.In ordinary circumstances, human actions have a myriad of unintended and often unforeseen consequences for the lives of other people. Problems of pollution are serious examples, but spillovers and side effects are the rule, not the exception. Who knows what consequences this essay may have? This essay is concerned with the problems of justice created by spillovers. After characterizing such spillovers more precisely and relating the concept to the economist's notion of an externality, I shall th…Read more
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51Health and Functional EfficiencyJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 39 (6): 634-647. 2014.This essay argues that what is central to Christopher Boorse’s biostatistical theory of disease as statistically subnormal part function (BST) are comparisons of the “functional efficiency” of parts and processes and that statistical considerations serve only to pick out a healthy level of functional efficiency. On this interpretation, the distinction between health and pathology is less important than comparisons of functional efficiency, which are entirely independent of statistical considerat…Read more
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167Problems with Realism in EconomicsEconomics and Philosophy 14 (2): 185-213. 1998.This essay attempts to distinguish the pressing issues for economists and economic methodologists concerning realism in economics from those issues that are of comparatively slight importance. In particular I shall argue that issues concerning the goals of science are of considerable interest in economics, unlike issues concerning the evidence for claims about unobservables, which have comparatively little relevance. In making this argument, this essay raises doubts about the two programs in con…Read more
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13Book Review (review)Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 39 (1): 231-233. 2008.
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222Egalitarianism ReconsideredJournal of Moral Philosophy 8 (4): 567-586. 2011.This paper argues that egalitarian theories should be judged by the degree to which they meet four different challenges. Fundamentalist egalitarianism, which contends that certain inequalities are intrinsically bad or unjust regardless of their consequences, fails to meet these challenges. Building on discussions by T.M. Scanlon and David Miller, we argue that egalitarianism is better understood in terms of commitments to six egalitarian objectives. A consequence of our view, in contrast to Mart…Read more
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Physical Causation: Phil Dowe, Physical causation (Cambridge Studies in Probability, Induction, and Decision Theory), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000, pp. ix+ 224, price US $60.00, ISBN: 0-521-78049-7 hbk (review)Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 33 (4): 717-724. 2002.
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1And PreferenceIn Fabienne Peter (ed.), Rationality and Commitment, Oxford University Press, Usa. pp. 49. 2007.
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33The faults of formalism and the magic of marketsCritical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 12 (1-2): 127-138. 1998.Abstract Contrary to Peter J. Boettke's essay, ?What Went Wrong with Economics??, there is no connection between ?formalism? and the alleged inability of mainstream economists to regard theoretical models as anything other than either depictions of real market economies or bases for criticizing market economies and justifying government intervention. Although Boettke's criticisms of the excesses of formalism are justified, Austrian economists such as Boettke need to justify their view that gover…Read more
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733Debate: To nudge or not to nudgeJournal of Political Philosophy 18 (1): 123-136. 2009.No Abstract
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6Health, Luck, and Justice, Shlomi Segall. Princeton University Press, 2010. x + 239 pages (review)Economics and Philosophy 27 (2): 190-198. 2011.
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102Philip Kitcher, Science, Truth, and Democracy:Science, Truth, and DemocracyEthics 113 (2): 423-428. 2003.
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156Causation, agency, and independencePhilosophy of Science 64 (4): 25. 1997.This paper explores versions of agency or manipulability theories of causation and argues that they are unacceptable both for the well-known reasons of their anthropomorphism, limited scope, and circularity and because they are subsumed by an alternative "independence" theory of causation, which is free of these difficulties
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43How to Do Philosophy of EconomicsPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1980. 1980.This paper sketches the contemporary turn in philosophy of science and discusses its practical implications for doing philosophy of economics. This turn consists basically of regarding philosophy of science as itself an empirical (social) science. It thus embodies a naturalized epistemology. Some of the circularities inherent in such an epistemology are examined, and it is argued that they are not vicious. Although an empirical approach to the philosophy of science is defended, it is pointed out…Read more
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42Rational belief and social interactionBehavioral and Brain Sciences 26 (2): 163-164. 2003.Game theory poses problems for modeling rational belief, but it does not need a new theory of rationality. Experimental results that suggest otherwise often reveal difficulties in testing game theory, rather than mistakes or paradoxes. Even though the puzzles Colman discusses show no inadequacy in the standard theory of rationality, they show that improved models of belief are needed.
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132Fairness and social normsPhilosophy of Science 75 (5): 850-860. 2008.This essay comments on the theory of social norms developed by Cristina Bicchieri in The Grammar of Society. It applauds her theory of norms but argues that it cannot account for the experimental results concerning ultimatum games. A theory of fairness is also needed. It develops a number of specific criticisms of her way of incorporating the influence of norms into preferences. †To contact the author, please write to: Department of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 5197 Helen C. Whit…Read more
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44Paradox postponedJournal of Economic Methodology 20 (3). 2013.This comment argues that there is an explanation paradox in economics, as Julian Reiss maintains, only if models in economics succeed in explaining even though they are not approximately true, fail to identify the causes of what they purport to explain, and misdescribe the mechanism by which the causes lead to the effects to be explained. Reiss provides no reason to believe that models that do not describe the causes and mechanisms at work are nevertheless explanatory
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65Beware of economists bearing advice. Though some of it is valuable, the framework of theoretical welfare economics from which economic advice usually issues has serious normative limitations and distortions. When economists go beyond identifying consequences of policies to making recommendations, they typically rely on a theory whose only normative concern is welfare and its distribution and that mistakenly identifies welfare with the satisfaction of preferences. Their advice about how to increa…Read more
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246Polling and public policyKennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 14 (3): 241-247. 2004.: This commentary distinguishes five reasons why one might want to conduct a survey concerning people's beliefs about death and the permissibility of harvesting organs: (1) simply to learn what people know and want; (2) to determine if current law and practice conform to the wishes of the population; (3) to determine the level of popular support for or opposition to policy changes; (4) to ascertain the causes and effects of popular beliefs and attitudes; and (5) to provide guidance in determinin…Read more
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London School of EconomicsDepartment of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific MethodProfessor (Part-time)
Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
Areas of Interest
Social and Political Philosophy |
Philosophy of Social Science |