Making Philosophy Relevant to Economists

John Davis

No 2024-04, Working Papers and Research from Marquette University, Center for Global and Economic Studies and Department of Economics

Abstract: This chapter discusses how philosophy could influence economists in the future. It emphasizes factors affecting economists’ willingness to incorporate philosophical ideas in economics, and distinguishes a weak case and a strong case for them doing so. Both are tied to behavioral welfare economics’ ‘reconciliation problem’ regarding the relationship between positive and normative economics. The weak case concerns the nature of individual identity in connection with how present bias and weakness of will potentially pit today’s and tomorrow’s selves against one another. The strong case concerns the normative scope of economic policy and expanding policy recommendation beyond its current welfare-only basis. The weak case imposes adjustment on positive economics; the strong case imposes it on normative economics. The paper closes with brief comments on how historically different sciences and fields draw on one another over time.

Keywords: economics; philosophy; reconciliation problem; present bias; individual identity; justice; Rawls; institutions; interdisciplinarity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A12 A33 B41 D03 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-hme, nep-hpe, nep-pke and nep-sog
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