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High Priests and Lowly Philosophers: The Battle for the Soul of Economics

High Priests and Lowly Philosophers: The Battle for the Soul of Economics. Peter J. Boettke, Christopher J. Coyne and Peter T. Leeson Department of Economics George Mason University. Do not pry into things too hard for you Or investigate what is beyond your reach.

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High Priests and Lowly Philosophers: The Battle for the Soul of Economics

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  1. High Priests and Lowly Philosophers: The Battle for the Soul of Economics Peter J. Boettke, Christopher J. Coyne and Peter T. Leeson Department of Economics George Mason University

  2. Do not pry into things too hard for you Or investigate what is beyond your reach. Many have been led astray by their theorizing, And evil imaginings have impaired their judgments. Stubbornness will come to a bad end, And he who flirts with danger will lose his life. When calamity befalls the arrogant, there is no cure; Wickedness is too deeply rooted in them. -- Ecclesiasticus 3: 21, 24-26, 28

  3. Basic Argument in the paper • Economics is a science that has defined limits • Public Policy often asks the science of economics to move beyond those limits • Changes in economic methodology in the 20th century seemed to suggest that the limits of economic science were transcended • These changes in methodology were false • When a discipline transforms itself to meet the demands of politics, but this transformation distorts the discipline the discipline loses its “soul”

  4. The Disciplinary Struggle in Economics Worldly Philosophy Social Engineering

  5. A Snap-shot of the Current Intellectual Landscape in Economics

  6. How Did Economics Loose Its Soul? • Keynesian Demand Management • Cost Benefit Analysis • Debate Over Market Socialism Paul Samuelson as the central figure in the hubris of scientific economics.

  7. Humility, Economics and Social Control • Hayek’s research program • Cognitive/epistemic direction of economics • Institutional environment • Rule of law and generality • Buchanan’s research program • Economics as a Public Science • Constitutional imperative • Smith’s Nobel Prize Address • Constructivist versus Ecological Rationality

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