Economics, Social Science and Pluralism

Economics, Social Science and Pluralism PDF Author: Victor A. Beker
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000598837
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
In the work of most classical economists – including Smith and Keynes – theory was often embedded in application. But from the second half of the last century on, mainstream economics styled itself as “pure” economics, where the theory is presented in a very abstract form detached from any application. This book maintains that economics is a social science whose mission is to explain and, when possible, predict, phenomena of the real-world economy. The book argues that the first step to restore economics as a social science is to define what issues economics should address. Only after this research agenda is established should the appropriate methodology be chosen, not the other way around. In this respect, examples from other social sciences as well as from natural sciences are considered more appropriate models for economics rather than physics. Moreover, the need for a closer interaction with psychology, sociology and other social sciences is required to restore the discipline to that field instead of acting as a branch of applied mathematics. The book also argues for a more pluralist approach to economic education to enable prospective economists to understand real-world economic phenomena and potential policy solution. For this reason, a good economics education should necessarily include the study of economic history and of the institutional environment. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to see economics return to its origins as a social science.

Economics, Social Science and Pluralism

Economics, Social Science and Pluralism PDF Author: Victor A. Beker
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000598837
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 160

Get Book Here

Book Description
In the work of most classical economists – including Smith and Keynes – theory was often embedded in application. But from the second half of the last century on, mainstream economics styled itself as “pure” economics, where the theory is presented in a very abstract form detached from any application. This book maintains that economics is a social science whose mission is to explain and, when possible, predict, phenomena of the real-world economy. The book argues that the first step to restore economics as a social science is to define what issues economics should address. Only after this research agenda is established should the appropriate methodology be chosen, not the other way around. In this respect, examples from other social sciences as well as from natural sciences are considered more appropriate models for economics rather than physics. Moreover, the need for a closer interaction with psychology, sociology and other social sciences is required to restore the discipline to that field instead of acting as a branch of applied mathematics. The book also argues for a more pluralist approach to economic education to enable prospective economists to understand real-world economic phenomena and potential policy solution. For this reason, a good economics education should necessarily include the study of economic history and of the institutional environment. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to see economics return to its origins as a social science.

Advancing Pluralism in Teaching Economics

Advancing Pluralism in Teaching Economics PDF Author: Samuel Decker
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351711482
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
The complex economic problems of the 21st century require a pluralist, real-world oriented and innovative discipline of economics that is capable of addressing and teaching these issues to students. This volume is a state-of-the-art compilation of diverse, innovative and international perspectives on the rationales for and pathways towards pluralist economics teaching. It fosters constructive controversy aiming to incite authors and commentators to engage in fruitful debates. This volume addresses a number of key questions: Why is it important for a social science to engage in pluralistic teaching? What issues does pluralist teaching face in different national contexts? Which traditions and practices in economic teaching make pluralist teaching difficult? What makes economics as a canonical textbook science particular and how could the rigid textbook system be innovated in a meaningful way? What can we learn from school education and other social science disciplines? Through examining these issues the editors have created a pluralist but cohesive book on teaching economics in the contemporary classroom drawing from ideas and examples from around the world. Advancing Pluralism in Teaching Economics offers a valuable insight into the methodology and application of pluralist economics teaching. It will be a great resource for those teaching economics at various levels, as well as researchers.

Pluralism in Economics

Pluralism in Economics PDF Author: Andrea Salanti
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 9781781959633
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
Pluralism in Economics sheds new light on the various meanings & consequences of pluralist approaches to the history & methodology of economics. It focuses on philosophical & methodological issues, & contains case studies.

Explanatory Pluralism

Explanatory Pluralism PDF Author: C. Mantzavinos
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316668487
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
Explaining phenomena is one of the main activities in which scientists engage. This book proposes a new philosophical theory of scientific explanation by developing and defending the position of explanatory pluralism with the help of the notion of 'explanatory games'. Mantzavinos provides a descriptive account of the explanatory activity of scientists in different domains and shows how they differ from commonsensical explanations offered in everyday life by ordinary people and also from explanations offered in religious contexts. He also shows how an evaluation and a critical appraisal of explanations put forward in different social arenas can take place on the basis of different values. Explanatory Pluralism provides solutions to all important descriptive and normative problems of the philosophical theory of explanation as illustrated in sophisticated case studies from economics and medicine, but also from mythology and religion.

Economic Pluralism

Economic Pluralism PDF Author: Robert F Garnett Jr
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135230609
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
With contributions from a galaxy of economists - including David Colander, Robin Hahnel, Yanis Varioufakis and Fred Lee - this book is an important read and an attempt to break down the varied barriers that have been erected to economic pluralism.

Scientific Pluralism

Scientific Pluralism PDF Author: Stephen H. Kellert
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 9780816647637
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Scientific pluralism is an issue at the forefront of philosophy of science. This landmark work addresses the question, Can pluralism be advanced as a general, philosophical interpretation of science? Scientific Pluralism demonstrates the viability of the view that some phenomena require multiple accounts. Pluralists observe that scientists present various—sometimes even incompatible—models of the world and argue that this is due to the complexity of the world and representational limitations. Including investigations in biology, physics, economics, psychology, and mathematics, this work provides an empirical basis for a consistent stance on pluralism and makes the case that it should change the ways that philosophers, historians, and social scientists analyze scientific knowledge. Contributors: John Bell, U of Western Ontario; Michael Dickson, U of South Carolina; Carla Fehr, Iowa State U; Ronald N. Giere, U of Minnesota; Geoffrey Hellman, U of Minnesota; Alan Richardson, U of British Columbia; C. Wade Savage, U of Minnesota; Esther-Mirjam Sent, U of Nijmegen. Stephen H. Kellert is professor of philosophy at Hamline University and a fellow of the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science. Helen E. Longino is professor of philosophy at Stanford University. C. Kenneth Waters is associate professor of philosophy and director of the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science.

Pluralist Economics

Pluralist Economics PDF Author: Edward Fullbrook
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1848137508
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
This book is an authoritative and accessible guide to the pluralist movement threatening to revolutionise mainstream economics. Leading figures in the field explain why pluralism is a required virtue in economics, how it came to be blocked and what it means for the way we think about, research and teach economics. The first part of the book looks at how neoclassical economics gained its stranglehold, particularly in the United States, and how the social and intellectual underpinnings of economics have enabled it to maintain this in the face of inconsistent evidence from the real world. This is then contrasted with different approaches to pluralism. Pluralist Economics then goes on to address the array of arguments for establishing pluralism, showing how economics came to function as a concealed ideology and not as a science, and how value-free economics is an illusion. Finally, it addresses the practical problems presented by this different way of doing economics.

From Economics to Political Economy

From Economics to Political Economy PDF Author: Tim B. Thornton
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317392094
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
The discipline of economics has been increasingly criticized for its inability to illuminate the workings of the real world and to provide reliable policy guidance for the major economic and social challenges of our time. A central problem in contemporary economics, and a problem from which many of its other failings flow, is its lack of plurality. By a lack of plurality it is meant that contemporary economics lacks diversity in its methods, theories, epistemology and methodology. It is also meant that economics has become far less interdisciplinary. From Economics to Political Economy offers an explanation as to why economics has become so determinedly non-pluralistic, and also gives considerable attention to exploring and evaluating promising strategies for reform. These strategies include developing a pluralist economics under the label of ‘political economy’ within other social science departments (such as departments of politics). Along the way the reader will learn about the worldwide student movement seeking greater pluralism in economics, encounter some dramatic case studies in intellectual suppression, gain a fuller sense of the nature of contemporary economics and explore the relationship between economics and other social sciences. This book is of interest to any social scientist, particularly those with interests in economics and politics.

Case Method and Pluralist Economics

Case Method and Pluralist Economics PDF Author: Kavous Ardalan
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319720716
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
This book discusses the relationship between pluralist economics and the case study method of teaching, advocating the complimentary use of both to advance economics education. Using a multi-paradigmatic philosophical frame of analysis, the book discusses the philosophical, methodological, and practical aspects of the case study method while drawing comparisons with those of the more commonly used lecture method. The book also discusses pluralist economics through the exposition of the philosophical foundations of the extant economics schools of thought, which is the focal point of the attention and admiration of pluralist economics. More specifically, the book discusses the major extant schools of thought in economics – Neo-Classical Economics, New Institutional Economics, Behavioral Economics, Austrian Economics, Post-Keynesian Economics, Institutional Economics, Radical Economics, and Marxist Economics—and emphasizes that these schools of thought in economics are equally scientific and informative, that they look at economic phenomena from their certain paradigmatic viewpoint, and that, together, they provide a more balanced understanding of the economic phenomenon under consideration. Emphasizing paradigmatic diversity as the cornerstone of both the case method and pluralist economics, the book draws the two together and makes an effective case for their combined use. A rigorous, multi-faceted analysis of the philosophy, methodology, and practice of economics education, this book is important for academicians and students interested in heterodox economics, philosophy, and education.

Climate Economics

Climate Economics PDF Author: Michael Roos
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030484238
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
This book is a philosophical critique of the economics of climate change from both an ethical and philosophy of economics perspective. Mitigating climate change is not so much a scientific problem, but rather a political, social and above all an economic problem. A future without greenhouse gas emissions requires a radical transformation towards a sustainable low-carbon economy and society. How this transformation could be achieved raises numerous economic questions. Many of these questions remain untouched, although economists are equipped with a suitable toolkit and expertise. This book argues that economists have a social responsibility to carry out more research on how global warming could be stopped and that, ultimately, economic analysis of climate change must be a political economic approach that treats the economy as part of a wider social system. This approach will be of interest to policy makers, educators, students and researchers in support of more pluralism in economic research and teaching.