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22Economic models of pathological gamblingIn D. Ross, D. Kincaid, D. Spurrett & P. Collins (eds.), What is Addiction?, Mit Press. pp. 131--158. 2010.Pathological gambling (PG) is a kind of ‘ideal puzzle’ for the economic model of the consumer. The pathological gambler takes pains to engage in activity that transparently has negative expected returns if utility varies positively with money. She also, typically, spends further resources on commitment devices designed to interfere with her gambling. These properties together describe an agent that is a kind of perfect foil for the rationally maximizing consumer. Recently, aspects of the neuropa…Read more
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37Economics is converging with sociology but not with psychologyJournal of Economic Methodology 30 (2): 135-156. 2022.The rise of behavioral economics since the 1980s led to richer mutual influence between economic and psychological theory and experimentation. However, as behavioral economics has become increasingly integrated into the main stream in economics, and as psychology has remained damagingly methodologically conservative, this convergence has recently gone into reverse. At the same time, growing appreciation among economists of the limitations of atomistic individualism, along with advantages in econ…Read more
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11Economics is all over the mapBehavioral and Brain Sciences 37 (1): 98-99. 2014.Bentley et al. say that economics is the science of their map's northwest quadrant, where choice is individual and transparent. This accepts the picture of the discipline common among behavioral economists who aim to drag economics southward but not eastward. In fact, leading economics journals regularly publish models located in all four quadrants, and the prominence of work from the eastern zone is increasing.
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133Evolutionary game theory and the normative theory of institutional design: Binmore and behavioral economicsPolitics, Philosophy and Economics 5 (1): 51-79. 2006.In this article, I critically respond to Herbert Gintis's criticisms of the behavioral-economic foundations of Ken Binmore 's game-theoretic theory of justice. Gintis, I argue, fails to take full account of the normative requirements Binmore sets for his account, and also ignores what I call the ‘scale-relativity’ considerations built into Binmore 's approach to modeling human evolution. Paul Seabright's criticism of Binmore, I note, repeats these oversights. In the course of answering Gintis's …Read more
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30Distinctive human social motivations in a game-theoretic frameworkBehavioral and Brain Sciences 28 (5): 715-716. 2005.I discuss implications of Tomasello et al's hypothesis that humans exhibit distinctive collective intentionality for game-theoretic approaches to modeling human evolution. Representing the hypothesis game-theoretically forces a question about whether it implies only distinctively human motivations or both distinctive motivations and distinctive cognitive capacities for representation of intentions. I also note that the hypothesis explains uniquely human ideological conflict and invites game-theo…Read more
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74Daniel DennettInternational Journal of Philosophical Studies 18 (2): 295-299. 2010.Contemporary Philosophy in Focus will offer a series of introductory volumes to many of the dominant philosophical thinkers of the current age. Each volume will consist of newly commissioned essays that will cover all the major contributions of a preeminent philosopher in a systematic and accessible manner. Author of such groundbreaking and influential books as Consciousness Explained and Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Daniel C. Dennett has reached a huge general and professional audience that extends…Read more
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15Carsten Herrmann-Pillath and Ivan Boldyrev's Hegel, institutions and economics: performing the social. London: Routledge, 2014, 264 pp (review)Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics 8 (1): 98. 2015.
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22Carsten Herrmann-Pillath's Foundations of economic evolution: a treatise on the natural philosophy of economics. Edward Elgar, 2013, 704 pp (review)Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics 7 (1): 109. 2014.
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134Classical Game Theory, Socialization and the Rationalization of ConventionsTopoi 27 (1-2): 57-72. 2008.The paper begins by providing a game-theoretic reconstruction of Gilbert’s (1989) philosophical critique of Lewis (1969) on the role of salience in selecting conventions. Gilbert’s insight is reformulated thus: Nash equilibrium is insufficiently powerful as a solution concept to rationalize conventions for unboundedly rational agents if conventions are solutions to the kinds of games Lewis supposes. Both refinements to NE and appeals to bounded rationality can plug this gap, but lack generality.…Read more
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14Consciousness and the Origins of Thought (review)Dialogue 38 (2): 456-457. 1999.Consciousness has clearly been the topic of the decade in the philosophy of mind. In a series of papers published throughout this period of frenzied attention, Norton Nelkin worked his way more painstakingly through the conceptual tangles than, perhaps, any other philosopher. While battling with cancer, he fused his ideas into the present book, and managed to complete it only days before the disease triumphed. So this is a heroic work of scholarship, in the most literal sense. It is also a very …Read more
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50Behavioral (pico)economics and the brain sciencesBehavioral and Brain Sciences 28 (5): 659-660. 2005.Supporters of Ainslie's model face questions about its integration with neuroscience. Although processes of value estimation may well turn out to be locally implemented, methodological reasons suggest this is less likely in the case of subpersonal “interests.”.
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24Action-oriented predictive processing and the neuroeconomics of sub-cognitive rewardBehavioral and Brain Sciences 36 (3): 225-226. 2013.Clark expresses reservations about Friston's reductive interpretation of action-oriented predictive processing (AOPP) models of cognition, but he doesn't link these reservations to specific alternatives. Neuroeconomic models of sub-cognitive reward valuation, which, like AOPP, integrate attention with action based on prediction error, are such an alternative. They interpret reward valuation as an input to neocortical processing instead of reducing it
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140Daniel Dennett (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2002.Contemporary Philosophy in Focus will offer a series of introductory volumes to many of the dominant philosophical thinkers of the current age. Each volume will consist of newly commissioned essays that will cover all the major contributions of a preeminent philosopher in a systematic and accessible manner. Author of such groundbreaking and influential books as Consciousness Explained and Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Daniel C. Dennett has reached a huge general and professional audience that extends…Read more
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37A Flexible, Sloppy Blob?American Philosophical Quarterly 60 (1): 5-19. 2023.Ladyman and Ross argue that analytic metaphysics is a misguided enterprise that should give way to a naturalized metaphysics that aims to reconcile everyday and special-scientific ontologies with fundamental physics as the authoritative source of knowledge on the general structure of the universe. Le Bihan and Barton (argue, as against this, that analytic metaphysics remains useful as a basis for the body of work in AI known as “applied ontology.” They stop short of claiming, however, that analy…Read more
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10A modern guide to philosophy of economics (edited book)Edward Elgar Publishing. 2021.This insightful Modern Guide offers a broad coverage of questions and controversies encountered by contemporary economists. A refreshing approach to philosophy of economics, chapters comprise a range of methodological and theoretical perspectives, from lab and field experiments to macroeconomics and applied policy work, written using a familiar, accessible language for economists. Highlighting key areas of methodological controversy, the Modern Guide looks at estimating utility functions in choi…Read more
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154The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Economics (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2009.The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Economics is a reference work on philosophical issues in the practice of economics. It is motivated by the view that there is more to economics than general equilibrium theory, and that the philosophy of economics should reflect the diversity of activities and topics that currently occupy economists. Contributions in the book are thus closely tied to on-going theoretical and empirical concerns in economics. Contributors include both philosophers of science an…Read more
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3The new economy is characterized in the developing world by open capital markets and coordinated international regulation - neither of which existed in the colonial period.
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8Dennett's Philosophy: A Comprehensive AssessmentMIT Press. 2000.An assessment of Dennett's philosophy by various philosophers. Includes Dennett's responses.
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5Endogenous choice of institutional punishment mechanisms to promote social cooperationPublic Choice. forthcoming.Does the desirability of social institutions for public goods provision depend on the extent to which they include mechanisms for endogenous enforcement of cooperative behavior? We consider alternative institutions that vary the use of direct punishments to promote social cooperation. In one institution, subjects participate in a public goods experiment in which an initial stage of voluntary contribution is followed by a second stage of voluntary, costly sanctioning. Another institution consists…Read more
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2Paul Thagard, Computational Philosophy of Science Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 10 (7): 285-288. 1990.
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Margaret A Boden, ed., The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence (review)Philosophy in Review 11 225-230. 1991.
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1Margaret A Boden, ed., The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 11 (4): 225-230. 1991.
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Models Back in the Bunk: A review of U. Maki (ed.) Fact and Fiction in Economics (review)Journal of Economic Methodology 12 (4): 599. 2005.
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Jay L. Garfield, ed., Foundations of Cognitive Science (review)Philosophy in Review 11 225-230. 1991.
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James H. Fetzer, Philosophy and Cognitive Science Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 11 (4): 225-230. 1991.