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118Book ReviewsRussell Hardin,. Indeterminacy and Society.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003. Pp. xii+166. $29.95 (review)Ethics 116 (2): 425-428. 2006.
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147Book ReviewsPhilip. Kitcher, Science, Truth, and Democracy.New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Pp. 219. $27.50Ethics 113 (2): 423-428. 2003.
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120Behavioural economics and paternalismEconomics and Philosophy 34 (1): 53-66. 2018.:Contemporary behavioural economics has documented common failures of reasoning that apparently make possible policies that benefit individuals by contravening or correcting their judgements. These policies appear to be paternalistic, even though a traditional view would deny that they are paternalistic on the grounds that policies such as nudges do not restrict individual liberty. It appears to many that a new definition of paternalism that takes its cue from behavioural economics is needed. Fu…Read more
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119Responses to My CriticsPublic Health Ethics 10 (2): 164-175. 2017.This essay responds to the helpful criticisms of Valuing Health: Well-Being, Freedom, and Suffering, which have been offered by Elselijn Kingma, Adam Oliver, Anna Alexandrova, Alex Voorhoeve, Erik Nord and James Wilson. I am extremely grateful to Jonathan Wolf and especially James Wilson for arranging a one-day conference on my book, Valuing Health: Well-Being, Freedom, and Suffering [Hausman, D.. Valuing Health: Well-Being, Freedom, and Suffering. Oxford: Oxford University Press.], and for publ…Read more
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327Mistakes about Preferences in the Social SciencesPhilosophy of the Social Sciences 41 (1): 3-25. 2011.Preferences are the central notion in mainstream economic theory, yet economists say little about what preferences are. This article argues that preferences in mainstream positive economics are comparative evaluations with respect to everything relevant to value or choice, and it argues against three mistaken views of preferences: (1) that they are matters of taste, concerning which rational assessment is inappropriate, (2) that preferences coincide with judgments of expected self-interested ben…Read more
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13Confirming Mainstream Economic TheoryTheoria: Revista de Teoría, Historia y Fundamentos de la Ciencia 13 (2): 261-278. 1998.This essay is concerned with the special difficulties that arise in testing and appraising mainstream economic theory. I argue that, like other theories designed to apply to complex open systems, it is very hard to confirm mainsteam economics. Parts can be tested and appraised, but the theory is only very weakly supported by evidence.
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35On dogmatism in economics: The case of preference reversalsJournal of Socio-Economics 20 (3): 205-225. 1991.
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Economic Models: A Philosophical Inquiry Into Capital TheoryDissertation, Columbia University. 1978.Chapter 5 is an essay on the methodology of equilibrium theory. In the course of examining recent controversies concerning lawlike claims and "assumptions" in economic theory, I reach a position similar to J. S. Mill's. Neo-classical economics is what Mill would call "a separate science." It follows a deductive method, since its basic laws supported by everyday experience. In its general equilibrium formulation, equilibrium theory possesses, however, no explanatory worth and very little explanat…Read more
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1Third-Party Risks in Research: Should IRBs Address Them?IRB: Ethics & Human Research 29 (3). 2007.The risks to groups posed by research involving human beings—including genetics research—should be conceived of as a species of third-party risks. The important task of protecting third parties from the risks posed by the conduct and the findings of research should not be assigned to IRBs because they are not designed or equipped to handle such a broad responsibility. The serious problems raised by third-party risks require an integration of policy-making and regulation that is beyond the scope …Read more
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579Motives and Markets in Health CareJournal of Practical Ethics 1 (2): 64-84. 2013.The truth about health care policy lies between two exaggerated views: a market view in which individuals purchase their own health care from profit maximizing health-care firms and a control view in which costs are controlled by regulations limiting which treatments health insurance will pay for. This essay suggests a way to avoid on the one hand the suffering, unfairness, and abandonment of solidarity entailed by the market view and, on the other hand, to diminish the inflexibility and ineffic…Read more
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1A review of two books by Kevin D. Hoover: Causality in Macroeconomics and The Methodology of Empirical Macroeconomics (review)Journal of Economic Methodology 10 (2): 259-270. 2003.
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47Experimenting on Models and in the World (review)Journal of Economic Methodology 15 (2): 209-216. 2008.
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64Racionalidad, bienestar y economía normativaRevista Internacional de Filosofía Política 12 45-55. 1998.
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98Constructive empiricism contestedPacific Philosophical Quarterly 63 (1): 21-28. 1982.Constructive empiricism, Bas van fraassen's new variety of anti-Realism, Maintains that science aims at empirically adequate, Rather than true theories and that, In fully accepting a theory, One should believe only that it is empirically adequate. A theory is empirically adequate just in case it has a model in which all observable phenomena may be embedded. I challenge van fraassen's main arguments and argue that the observable/unobservable distinction will not bear the weight that van fraassen …Read more
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9Why Look Under the Hood?In Daniel M. Hausman (ed.), Essays on Philosophy and Economic Methodology, Cambridge University Press. pp. 70-73. 1992.
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69Price Huw, Corry Richard (Eds.), Causation, Physics, and the Constitution of Reality: Russell's Republic Revisited. Oxford University Press (2007), pp. 403+ix, $35, 978-0-19-927819- (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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30Price Huw, Corry Richard (eds.), Causation, physics, and the constitution of reality: Russell's republic revisited. Oxford university press (2007), pp. 403+IX, $35, 978-0-19-927819- (review)Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics. 2007.
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56The inexact and separate philosophy of economicsErasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics 4 (1): 67. 2011.In this interview, Professor Hausman offers some reflections on his approach to the philosophy of economics, and on various topics central to recent methodological discussions, such as the role of abstraction, idealizations, scientific representation, and causality in economics.
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130Liberalism, Welfare Economics, and FreedomSocial Philosophy and Policy 10 (2): 172-197. 1993.With the collapse of the centrally controlled economies and the authoritarian governments of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics, political leaders are, with appreciable public support, espousing “liberal” economic and political transformations—the reinstitution of markets, the securing of civil and political rights, and the establishment of representative governments. But those supporting reform have many aims, and the liberalism to which they look for political guidance is not an un…Read more
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312Revealed preference, belief, and game theoryEconomics and Philosophy 16 (1): 99-115. 2000.The notion of ‘revealed preference’ is unclear and should be abandoned. Defenders of the theory of revealed preference have misinterpreted legitimate concerns about the testability of economics as the demand that economists eschew reference to (unobservable) subjective states. As attempts to apply revealed-preference theory to game theory illustrate with particular vividness, this demand is mistaken.
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312Causation, 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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66How 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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262Fairness 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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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 |