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from Lars Syll To achieve explanatory success, a theory should, minimally, satisfy two criteria: it should have determinate implications for behavior, and the implied behavior should be what we actually observe. These are necessary conditions, not sufficient ones. Rational-choice theory often fails on both counts. The theory may be indeterminate, and people may be irrational. In what was perhaps the first sustained criticism of the theory, Keynes emphasized indeterminacy, notably because...

from Ken Zimmerman Human work/employment/work relations are complex. In terms of muscular or nervous effort there is no distinction between agreeable and irksome activities, or between those undertaken for pleasure and those undertaken for pay. In many instances severe physical labor, combined with hardship and exposure are undertaken for pleasure by tourists, who even hire and pay guides, for example mountain climbing. Similarly, athletic sports, though often arduous are both professions...

from Lars Syll So what do I mean by methodological arrogance? I mean an attitude that invokes micro-foundations as a methodological principle — philosophical reductionism in Popper’s terminology — while dismissing non-microfounded macromodels as unscientific. To be sure, the progress of science may enable us to reformulate (and perhaps improve) explanations of certain higher-level phenomena by expressing those relationships in terms of lower-level concepts. That is what Popper calls...

People have long struggled to understand The Word of God. One might even wonder if a better approach would be to rely on artificial intelligence. However, I’m not sure AI algorithms understand Him either This shows that even God the Omnipotent can’t manage sarcasm blatant enough for Twitter. Twitter has repented, but it looks like a very long penance to me. I fear not His wrath, for though I walk in the valley of copyright infringment fair use is...

Adani is getting on with the job of building its Carmichael coal mine as opponents prepare for a renewed campaign of protests. That’s the lead in this SMH story about the Carmichael mine. But the picture released is the same yellow grader that’s been there for months. This is a puzzle. On the one hand, Adani’s pronouncements exude confidence that the mine will be shipping coal within a couple of years. That was reinforced in a recent interview with Gautam Adani himself. On the...

. . .  everything indicates more and more clearly that the resolution of the climate challenge can not be achieved without a powerful movement of compression of social inequalities, at all levels. With the current scale of inequalities, the march towards energetic sobriety will remain wishful thinking. Firstly because carbon emissions are highly concentrated among the richest. Globally, the richest 10% are responsible for almost half of the emissions, and the richest 1% alone emit more...

Economic Thought:History, Philosophy and Methodology Vol. 8, No. 1 download issue in full Judging Heterodox Economics: A Response to Hodgson’s CriticismsLynne Chester The Meaning and Future of Heterodox Economics: A Response to Lynne ChesterGeoffrey M. Hodgson Was Smith A Moral Subjectivist?Kevin Quinn Addressing the Malaise in Neoclassical Economics: A Call for Partial ModelsRon Wallace Commentary on ‘Addressing the Malaise in Neoclassical Economics: A Call for Partial Models’David...