1.2 — What Exactly is Economics? — Class Content
Overview
Today we discuss some common themes we will encounter this semester, and take a broad philosophical approach to what economics is and how it has developed.
Readings
Required Readings
NONE
Recommended Readings
This week we will be covering elements of:
- Ch.1 (Introduction) in Landreth and Colander
- Preface & Ch.17 (Methodological Postscript) in Blaug 1996
Other helpful readings:
- Buchanan, 1964, “What Should Economists Do?”
- Blaug, 1975, “Kuhn versus Lakatos, or paradigms versus research programmes in the history of economics”
- McCloskey, 1998, The Rhetoric of Economics pp.20-28
The following Wikipedia entries can also provide more background on the philosophy of science (broadly in order):
- Philosophy of Science
- Positivism
- Logical Positivism
- Karl Popper
- Thomas Kuhn
- Imre Lakatos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imre_Lakatos
- Lionel Robbins on Economics
- Milton Friedman on Positivist Methodology
Slides
Below, you can find the slides in two formats. Clicking the image will bring you to the html version of the slides in a new tab. The lower button will allow you to download a PDF version of the slides.
You can type h to see a special list of viewing options, and type o for an outline view of all the slides.
I suggest printing the slides beforehand and using them to take additional notes in class (not everything is in the slides)!
Assignments
We will start getting the discussion board up and running this week on Blackboard. As a trial week, you will all get full points this week.