課程大綱

課程資訊

課程名稱

經濟哲學
Philosophy of Economics

開課學期

107-2

授課對象

社會科學院經濟學系

授課教師

吳亨德

課號

ECON5146

課程識別碼

323EU8320

班次

學分

3.0

全/半年

半年

必/選修

選修

上課時間

星期一2,3,4(9:10~12:10)

上課地點

社科506

備註

本課程以英語授課。
限學士班三年級以上或限碩士班以上
總人數上限：30人

課程網頁

http://trembling-hand.com/courses/

課程簡介影片

核心能力關聯

核心能力與課程規劃關聯圖

課程大綱

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課程概述

The course trains students to discuss economic concepts from a philosophical perspective. Is economics a science? Do economic models need realistic assumptions? What makes an economic institution “good”? These and other questions are raised in this course.

The course puts a strong emphasis on discussion and debate. Students are required to give two short presentations of research papers and defend the authors' claims in the following discussion. Students are also required to be discussants of other students’ presentations. To train writing interesting and coherent arguments, students write a short paragraph about the debate after class. In the final paper, students examine a recently published research paper from the perspective of one of the topics discussed in class.

課程目標

The course has two objectives. First, it trains students to discuss economic concepts in speaking and writing. Second, it introduces students to methodological and normative issues on the border of economics and philosophy.

課程要求

Read at least one of the papers before class.
After class, write a short argument (paragraph) about one of the papers discussed in class.

預期每週課後學習時數

Office Hours

另約時間備註： By appointment

指定閱讀

Required readings for each week are listed in the syllabus. Survey articles are not required, but may help understanding the main papers.

參考書目

Extension readings
Hausman, D. M. (1992). The inexact and separate science of economics.
Cambridge University Press.

Survey articles are drawn from the following books:

(SEOP) Salta, E. (2015) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford
University.
(ASS1) Arrow, K. J., Sen, A., & Suzumura, K. (Eds.). (2002). Handbook of
Social Choice & Welfare (Vol. 1). North Holland.
(ASS2) Arrow, K. J., Sen, A., & Suzumura, K. (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of
Social Choice & Welfare (Vol. 2). Elsevier.
(APP) Anand, P., Pattanaik, P.K., & Puppe, C. (2009) Handbook of Rational
and Social Choice. Oxford University Press.
(DH) Hausman, D. M. (Ed.). (1994). The philosophy of economics: an
anthology. Cambridge University Press.

評量方式
(僅供參考)

No.	項目	百分比	說明
1.	Short essays	15%
2.	Class Participation	25%	Active participation in discussions
3.	Presentations	25%
4.	Final Paper	35%	10 pages maximum length

課程進度

週次	日期	單元主題
第1週		Part I: The Methodology of Economics Week 1: Introduction
第2週		Week 2: Academic Writing Chudnoff, E. (2007). A Guide to Philosophical Writing. Harvard College
第3週		Week 3: Falsifiability and Paradigm shifts Popper, K. (1963). Conjectures and Refutations. Routledge. (Chapters 1 and 10) Kuhn, T. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. University of Chicago Press. (Chapters 2,3,4,9) Survey Articles: Hands, D.W., (1993) Popper and Lakatos in Economic Methodology. DH Nickles, T. (2013). Scientific Revolutions, SEOP.
第4週		Week 4: Laws of Nature in Economics Explanation, Deductive Nomological Model, Statistical Relevance Model Hempel, C. G., & Oppenheim, P. (1948). Studies in the Logic of Explanation. Philosophy of science, 135-175. Salmon, W. (1971). Statistical Explanation, in Statistical Explanation and Statistical Relevance, W. Salmon, (ed.), 29–87, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Survey Articles: Woodward, J. (2014). Scientific Explanation, SEOP.
第5週		Week 5: Causation Explanations, Counterfactuals, Causation Mill, J.S. (1994, 1887). On the definition and method of political economy. Lewis, D. (1979). Counterfactual dependence and time's arrow. Noûs, 455-476. Survey Articles: Menzies, P. (2014). Counterfactual Theories of Causation, SEOP.
第6週		Week 6: Assumptions Positivism, Assumptions, behavioral economics, microfoundations Rabin, M. (2002). A perspective on psychology and economics. European economic review, 46(4), 657-685. Friedman, M. (1953). The methodology of positive economics. Essays in positive economics, Chicago University Press. Survey Papers: Mäki, U. (2009). Realistic realism about unrealistic models. Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Economics.
第7週		Week 7: Spring Vacation
第8週		Week 8: Rationality Preference Axioms, Axiomatizations of expected utility Chapter 5 from: Savage, L.J. (1954, 1972) The foundations of statistics. New York, Dover Publications. Harless, D. W., & Camerer, C. F. (1994). The predictive utility of generalized expected utility theories. Econometrica: Journal of the Econometric Society, 1251-1289. Survey articles: Grant, S. & van Zandt, T. (2009). Expected Utility Theory. APP. Chapter 7 from: Savage, L.J. (1954, 1972) The foundations of statistics. New York, Dover Publications. Gilboa, I. (2009). Theory of decision under uncertainty (Vol. 1). Cambridge: Cambridge university press.
第9週		Week 9: Mid Term (no class)
第10週		Part II: Normative Economics Week 10: Dutch book arguments Dutch book arguments. Hajek, A. (2009). Dutch Book Arguments. APP. Kennedy, R. & Chihara, C. (1979) The Dutch book argument: Its logical flaws, its subjective sources. Philosophical Studies 36, 19-33. Gilboa, I., Postlewaite, A. & Schmeidler, D. Synthese (2012) Rationality of belief or: why savage’s axioms are neither necessary nor sufficient for rationality
第11週		Week 11: Social Choice Arrow's impossibility result, Gibbard-Satterthwaite Theorem Chapters 2 and 5: Gaertner, W. (2009) A primer in social choice theory: revised edition. Oxford University Press. Survey articles: List, C. (2013). Social Choice Theory, SEOP.
第12週		Week 12: Utilitarianism Trolley problems, Ford Pinto case, Consequentialism vs. Deontological ethics Chapters 1 and 2 from: Mill, J.S. (1863) Utilitarianism. London, Parker, Son, and Bourn. Pattanaik, P. (2009). Limits of utilitarianism as the basis of public action. APP Survey articles: Blackorby, C., Bossert, W., & Donaldson, D. (2002) Utilitarianism and the theory of justice. ASS1 Sinnott-Armstrong, W. (2011). Consequentialism, SEOP.
第13週		Week 13: Voting Majority Rule, Borda count, Approval Voting, Random Ballot, Voting power measures Krishna, V., & Morgan, J. (2012). Majority rule and utilitarian welfare. Available at SSRN 2083248. Brams, S. J., & Fishburn, P. C. (2005). Going from theory to practice: the mixed success of approval voting. Social Choice and Welfare, 25(2-3), 457-474. Dummett, M. (1998). The Borda count and agenda manipulation. Social Choice and Welfare, 15(2), 289-296. Survey articles: Chapter 6: Gaertner, W. (2009) A primer in social choice theory: revised edition. Oxford University Press.
第14週		Week 14: Equality Equality, Egalitarianism Rawls, J. (2009). A theory of justice. Harvard university press. (selected excerpt) Sen, A. (1979) Equality of what? Tanner lecture on human values. Survey Articles: Tungodden, B. (2009) Equality and Priority. APP. Peter, F. (2009) Rawlsian Justice. APP. Rawls, J. (2009). A theory of justice. Harvard University press.
第15週		Week 15 Population Ethics Population Ethics Derek Parfit (1986). Reasons and Persons. Oxford University Press. Charles Blackorby, Walter Bossert, and David Donaldson.(2009). Population Ethics. APP.
第16週		Week 16: Freedom Positive and Negative Liberty, Isaiah Berlin. Berlin, I. (1958) “Two Concepts of Liberty.” In Isaiah Berlin (1969) Four Essays on Liberty. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
第17週		Week 17: Paternalism Paternalism, Libertarian paternalism, Nudge Sunstein, C. R., & Thaler, R. H. (2003). Libertarian paternalism is not an oxymoron. The University of Chicago Law Review, 1159-1202. Mitchell, G. (2005). Libertarian paternalism is an oxymoron. Northwestern University Law Review, 99(3). Survey Articles: Dworkin, G. (2014) Paternalism, SEOP. Hausman, D. M., & Welch, B. (2010). Debate: To Nudge or Not to Nudge. Journal of Political Philosophy, 18(1), 123-136.
第18週		Week 18: Final Final paper due.