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79Costs and Benefits of Diverse Plurality in EconomicsPhilosophy of the Social Sciences. forthcoming.The literature on pluralism in economics has focused on the benefits expected from the plurality of theories, methods, and frameworks. This overlooks half of the picture: the costs. Neither have the multifarious costs been systematically analyzed in philosophy of science. We begin rectifying this neglect. We discuss how the benefits of plurality and diversity in science presuppose distinct types of plurality and how various benefit and plurality types are associated with different types of costs…Read more
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62Philosophy of economics (edited book)North Holland. 2012.This volume serves as a detailed introduction for those new to the field as well as a rich source of new insights and potential research agendas for those already engaged with the philosophy of economics.
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9The growing body of research on interdisciplinarity has encouraged a more in depth analysis of the relations that hold among academic disciplines. In particular, the incursion of one scientific discipline into another discipline's traditional domain, also known as scientific imperialism, has been a matter of increasing debate. Following this trend, Scientific Imperialism aims to bring together philosophers of science and historians of science interested in the topic of scientific imperialism and…Read more
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22Scientific Imperialism: Exploring the Boundaries of Interdisciplinarity (edited book)Routledge. 2019.The growing body of research on interdisciplinarity has encouraged a more in depth analysis of the relations that hold among academic disciplines. In particular, the incursion of one scientific discipline into another discipline’s traditional domain, also known as scientific imperialism, has been a matter of increasing debate. Following this trend, Scientific Imperialism aims to bring together philosophers of science and historians of science interested in the topic of scientific imperialism an…Read more
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98On the structure of explanatory unification: the case of geographical economicsStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 40 (2): 185-195. 2009.A newly emerged field within economics, known as geographical economics claims to have provided a unified approach to the study of spatial agglomerations at different spatial scales by showing how these can be traced back to the same basic economic mechanisms. We analyze this contemporary episode of explanatory unification in relation to major philosophical accounts of unification. In particular, we examine the role of argument patterns in unifying derivations, the role of ontological conviction…Read more
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81Interdisciplinarity in action: philosophy of science perspectivesEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Science 6 (3): 323-326. 2016.Interdisciplinarity has become a dominant research policy imperative1 – exercised by European Research Council and other funding agencies at different scales – and a substantial topic in science studies fields outside philosophy of science, including science education, research management (particularly team management) and scientometrics. Philosophers of science have only recently begun to dedicate more attention to this feature of contemporary science. The present collection of studies aspires …Read more
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76Investigating Interdisciplinary Practice: Methodological Challenges (Introduction)Perspectives on Science 27 (4): 545-552. 2019.Interdisciplinarity is one of the most prominent ideas driving science and research policy today.1 It is applied widely as a conception of what particularly creative and socially relevant research processes should consist of, whether in the natural sciences, the social sciences, the humanities, or elsewhere. Its advocates, many of whom are located in current science and research administration themselves, are using ideas of interdisciplinarity to reshape university organization and research fund…Read more
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24Introduction to the special issue: papers from the IX INEM Conference in HelsinkiJournal of Economic Methodology 21 (1): 1-2. 2014.Following an established tradition, the current special issue collects five articles that originate from papers presented at the IX Conference of the International Network for Economic Method. The conference took place in Helsinki on 1–3 September 2011 and was hosted by TINT (Trends and Tensions in Intellectual Integration), University of Helsinki. The conference was successful both in terms of the number of participants and the quality of the presentations. Although the sample of papers that ma…Read more
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80Extra-academic transdisciplinarity and scientific pluralism: what might they learn from one another?European Journal for Philosophy of Science 6 (3): 419-444. 2016.The paper looks at challenges related to the ideas of integration and knowledge systems in extra-academic transdisciplinarity. Philosophers of science are only starting to pay attention to the increasingly common practice of introducing extra-academic perspectives or engaging extra-academic parties in academic knowledge production. So far the rather scant philosophical discussion on the subject has mainly concentrated on the question whether such engagement is beneficial in science or not. Meanw…Read more
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731Introduction: Interdisciplinary model exchangesStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 48 52-59. 2014.The five studies of this special section investigate the role of models and similar representational tools in interdisciplinarity. These studies were all written by philosophers of science, who focused on interdisciplinary episodes between disciplines and sub-disciplines ranging from physics, chemistry and biology to the computational sciences, sociology and economics. The reasons we present these divergent studies in a collective form are three. First, we want to establish model-exchange as a k…Read more
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25Notes on economics imperialism and norms of scientific inquiryRevue de Philosophie Économique 21 (1): 95-127. 2021.L’impérialisme économique, entendu comme une certaine relation entre disciplines scientifiques, est défendu par certains et rejeté par d’autres. Ces réactions sont toutefois rarement fondées sur des valeurs et des normes de recherche scientifique explicites. Or, lorsque l’on s’efforce de les rendre explicites, ces normes se révèlent plus complexes et plus floues qu’il n’y paraît. Certains considèrent qu’elles font partie intégrante de la définition du concept d’impérialisme économique ; d’autres…Read more
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30This thought-provoking book discusses the concept of progress in economics and investigates whether any advance has been made in its different spheres of research. The authors look back at the history, successes and failures of their respective fields and thoroughly examine the notion of progress from an epistemological and methodological perspective. The idea of progress is particularly significant as the authors regard it as an essentially contested concept which can be defined in many ways –…Read more
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64Reflections on the Ontology of MoneyJournal of Social Ontology 6 (2): 245-263. 2020.The suggestions outlined here include the following. Money is a bundle of institutionally sustained causal powers. Money is an institutional universal instantiated in generic currencies and particular money tokens. John Searle’s account of institutional facts is not helpful for understanding the nature of money as an institution (while it may help to illuminate aspects of the nature of currencies and money particulars). The money universal is not a social convention in David Lewis’s sense (while…Read more
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28Notes on economics imperialism and norms of scientific inquiryRevue de Philosophie Économique 21 (1): 95-127. 2021.L’impérialisme économique, entendu comme une certaine relation entre disciplines scientifiques, est défendu par certains et rejeté par d’autres. Ces réactions sont toutefois rarement fondées sur des valeurs et des normes de recherche scientifique explicites. Or, lorsque l’on s’efforce de les rendre explicites, ces normes se révèlent plus complexes et plus floues qu’il n’y paraît. Certains considèrent qu’elles font partie intégrante de la définition du concept d’impérialisme économique ; d’autres…Read more
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34Puzzled by Idealizations and Understanding Their FunctionsPhilosophy of the Social Sciences 50 (3): 215-237. 2020.Idealization is ubiquitous in human cognition, and so is the inclination to be puzzled by it: what to make of ideal gas, infinitely large populations, homo economicus, perfectly just society, known to violate matters of fact? This is apparent in social science theorizing, recent philosophy of science analyzing scientific modeling, and the debate over ideal and non-ideal theory in political philosophy. I will offer a set of concepts and principles to improve transparency about the precise content…Read more
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50Rights and wrongs of economic modelling: refining RodrikJournal of Economic Methodology 25 (3): 218-236. 2018.ABSTRACTThis is a critical discussion and proposed refinement of the inspiring account of the successes and failures of economic modelling sketched in Dani Rodrik’s Economics Rules. The refinements make use of a systematic framework of the structure of scientific modelling. The issues include distinguishing the discipline of economics from the behaviour and attitudes of economists as targets of normative assessment; nature and sources of success and failure in modelling; the key role of model co…Read more
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17Two philosophies of the rhetoric of economicsIn Rhetoric and Critical Thinking, Routledge. 1993.
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68Realistic realism about unrealistic modelsIn Don Ross & Harold Kincaid (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Economics, Oxford University Press. 2009.My philosophical intuitions are those of a scientific realist. In addition to being realist in its philosophical outlook, my philosophy of economics also aspires to be realistic in the sense of being descriptively adequate, or at least normatively non-utopian, about economics as a scientific discipline. The special challenge my philosophy of economics must meet is to provide a scientific realist account that is realistic of a discipline that deals with a complex subject matter and operates with …Read more
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86The methodology of positive economics : Reflections on the Milton Friedman legacy (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2009.Milton Friedman's 1953 essay 'The methodology of positive economics' remains the most cited, influential, and controversial piece of methodological writing in twentieth-century economics. Since its appearance, the essay has shaped the image of economics as a scientific discipline, both within and outside of the academy. At the same time, there has been an ongoing controversy over the proper interpretation and normative evaluation of the essay. Perceptions have been sharply divided, with some vie…Read more
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Homo economicus ja marginalismin perintöIn Virtanen Akseli & Heiskala Risto (eds.), Talous ja yhteiskuntateoria I. Vanhan maailman talous ja suuri murros, Gaudeamus. 2011.
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340Puzzled by realism: a response to DeichselErasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics 4 (1): 42-52. 2011.No realist project in and about economics is close to completion. There are many open issues that remain to be addressed and resolved. Simon Deichsel (2011) has written a healthy challenge that should offer some useful inspiration to anyone interested in assessing and perhaps contributing to the realist projects. He argues against realism and in support of some sort of anti-realism. My response first deals with some conceptual issues regarding the very ideas of realism and anti-realism. I will t…Read more
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162Models and the locus of their truthSynthese 180 (1). 2011.If models can be true, where is their truth located? Giere (Explaining science, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1998) has suggested an account of theoretical models on which models themselves are not truth-valued. The paper suggests modifying Giere’s account without going all the way to purely pragmatic conceptions of truth—while giving pragmatics a prominent role in modeling and truth-acquisition. The strategy of the paper is to ask: if I want to relocate truth inside models, how do I get…Read more
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37Some non-reasons for non-realism about economicsIn Uskali Mäki (ed.), Fact and Fiction in Economics: Models, Realism and Social Construction, Cambridge University Press. pp. 90. 2002.Many participants in the debate over the current state and recent developments of economics make claims that are unrefined, simplistic, often exaggerated. This is understandable: the stakes are high, the issues trigger emotional responses, and few participants are motivated or equipped to seek more nuanced analyses. To assert, or to deny, that economics as a scientific discipline or a particular part of it (such as a model) is about reality – or refers to reality, represents it, is true about it…Read more
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117Economics Imperialism: Concept and ConstraintsPhilosophy of the Social Sciences 39 (3): 351-380. 2009.The paper seeks to offer [1] an explication of a concept of economics imperialism, focusing on its epistemic aspects; and [2] criteria for its normative assessment. In regard to [1], the defining notion is that of explanatory unification across disciplinary boundaries. As to [2], three kinds of constraints are proposed. An ontological constraint requires an increased degree of ontological unification in contrast to mere derivational unification. An axiological constraint derives from variation i…Read more
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36Economics as a Process: Essays in the New Institutional Economics, Richard N. Langlois, editor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, ix + 262 pages (review)Economics and Philosophy 3 (2): 367. 1987.
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Maailma markkinoina. Universaalin talousontologian ytimessä ja rajoillaIn Ilkka Niiniluoto, Risto Vilkko & Jaakko Kuorikoski (eds.), Talous ja filosofia, Gaudeamus. pp. 101-123. 2013."The world as markets. At the core and boundaries of a universal economic ontology"
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University of HelsinkiDepartment of Philosophy (Theoretical Philosophy, Practical Philosophy, Philosophy in Swedish)Retired faculty
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Social Science |
General Philosophy of Science |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Biology |
Philosophy of Social Science |
General Philosophy of Science |