The Elgar Companion To Economics and Philosophy (Elgar Original Reference)

The Elgar Companion to Economics and Philosophy aims to demonstrate exactly how these two important areas have always been linked, and to illustrate the key areas of overlap. The Companion is divided into distinct parts, each of which highlights a leading area of scholarly concern: political economy conceived as social philosophy; the methodology and epistemology of economics; and social ontology and the ontology of economics. The contributors are well-known and distinguished authors from a variety of disciplines, who have been invited both to survey and to provide a personal assessment of current and prospective future states of their respective areas of philosophical interest. Academics and students who have an interest in economics and philosophy, political philosophy and the history of ideas will find this book of great appeal, as will researchers working in the field and readers interested in the nature of the discipline of economics. The Elgar Companion to Economics and Philosophy......Page 1 Contents......Page 5 Contributors......Page 7 Introduction......Page 12 1 Natural law, natural history and the foundations of political economy......Page 31 2 The historical and philosophical foundations of new political economy......Page 52 3 Economic rationality......Page 70 4 From imperialism to inspiration: a survey of economics and psychology......Page 89 5 Institutional economics: from Menger and Veblen to Coase and North......Page 112 6 Taking evolution seriously: what difference does it make for economics?......Page 130 7 Normative economics and theories of distributive justice......Page 160 8 Ideology: an economic point of view......Page 187 9 The methodology of scientifi c research programmes......Page 209 10 Constructivism: the social construction of scientifi c knowledge......Page 225 11 From feminist empiricism to feminist poststructuralism: philosophical questions in feminist economics......Page 241 12 Rhetoric and postmodernism in economics......Page 259 13 Models in economics......Page 288 14 Formalism......Page 311 15 Methodological individualism and economics......Page 327 16 Philosophical under-labouring in the context of modern economics: aiming at truth and usefulness in the meanest of ways......Page 345 17 The confl ict between formalism and realisticness in modern economics: the case of the new institutional economics......Page 367 18 Structure and agency in economic analysis: the case of Austrian economics and the material embeddedness of socio-economic life......Page 392 19 Collective intentionality, complex economic behavior, and valuation......Page 414 20 Descartes’ legacy: intersubjective reality, intrasubjective theory......Page 431 21 Information, knowledge and modelling economic agency......Page 451 22 Conceptions of probability......Page 474 23 Money......Page 493 Index......Page 517 Scholars of economics and of the history and philosophy of economics examine areas in which economic and philosophical thinking converged during the closing decades of the 20th century. Within the broad themes of political economy conceived as political philosophy, the methodology and epistemology of economics, and social ontology and the ontology of economics, they discuss such topics as institutional economics from Manger and Veblen to Coase and North, rhetoric and postmodernism in economics, methodological individualism and economics, the conflict between formalism and realistic-ness in modern economics, and structure and agency in economic analysis as exemplified by Austrian economics and the material embeddedness of socio-economic life. As well as summarizing the topic, they present their own views regarding it. Annotation : 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)