Value-free economics, road towards epistemological hubris. The use and abuse of mathematics by economists

Main Article Content

Aleksander Ostapiuk

Abstract

The goal of the article is to substantiate that despite the criticism the paradigm in economics will not change because of the axiomatic assumptions of value-free economics. How these assumptions work is demonstrated on the example of Gary Becker’s economic approach which is analyzed from the perspective of scientific research programme (Lakatos). The author indicates hard core of economic approach (maximization of utility, instrumental rationality) and the protective belt which makes hard core immune from any criticism. This immunity leads economists to believe that they are objective scientists and, consequently, it results in epistemological hubris. Due to its tautological nature (and other problems), economic approach is considered to be a degenerative programme. This conclusion is extended on value-free economics. In spite of these problems, many economists still believe in positive economics and they dismiss normative approaches. It has a negative influence on people (well-being, choices over time). The conclusion of the article is that thanks to axiomatic assumptions economists do not have objective and ironclad methodology and they should accept normative values in their research.

Article Details

How to Cite
Ostapiuk, A. (2019). Value-free economics, road towards epistemological hubris. The use and abuse of mathematics by economists. Philosophical Problems in Science (Zagadnienia Filozoficzne W Nauce), (67), 153–202. Retrieved from https://zfn.edu.pl/index.php/zfn/article/view/476
Section
Articles

References

Ainslie, G., 2001. Breakdown of Will. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Anon, 1993. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, press release. The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics 1992. Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 89, s. 1–5.

Anon, 2018. Stenogram z otwartego seminarium Rady Naukowej Polskiego Towarzystwa Ekonomicznego zorganizowanego wspólnie z Komitetem Nauk Ekonomicznych PAN pt. „Ekonomia behawioralna a ekonomia głównego nurtu”. Dostępne na: <http://pte.pl/pliki/2/1/autoryzowany_stenogram18_01_17.pdf> [dostęp 29.08.2019].

Backhouse, R.E. i Cherrier, B., 2017. The age of the applied economist: the transformation of economics since the 1970s. History of Political Economy, 49, s. 1–33.

Becker, G., 1990. Ekonomiczna teoria zachowań ludz¬kich. Warszawa: PWN.

Becker, G., 1993. The economic way of looking at behavior. The Journal of Political Economy, 101(3), s. 385–409.

Becker, G. i Murphy, K., 1988. A theory of rational addiction. Journal of Political Economy, 96(4), s. 675–700.

Becker, G. i Stigler, G., 1977. De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum. American Economic Review, 67(2), s. 76–90.

Beed, C. i Kane, O., 1991. What is the critique of the mathematization of economics? Kyklos, [online] 44(4), s. 581–612. Dostępne na: <https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-6435.1991.tb01798.x> [dostęp 29.08.2019].

Berg, N. i Gigerenzer, G., 2010. As-if behavioral economics: Neoclassical economics in disguise? History of Economic Ideas, 18(1), s. 133–165.

Blaug, M., 1995. Metodologia ekonomii. Warszawa: PWN.

Blaug, M., 1997. Ugly currents in modern economics. Options Politiques, 18(17), s. 3–8.

Blaug, M., 2003. The formalist revolution of the 1950s. Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 25(2), s. 145–156.

Boland, L.A., 1979. A critique of Friedman’s critics. Journal of Economic Literature, 17(2), s. 503–522.

Boldyrev, I. i Svetlova, E. red., 2016. Enacting Dismal Science: New Perspectives on the Performativity of Economics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Bruni, L., Comin, F. i Pugno, M., 2008. Capabilities and Happiness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bruni, L. i Porta, P.L., 2005. Economics and Happiness: Framing the Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bruni, L. i Porta, P.L. red., 2007. Handbook on the Economics of Happiness. Cheltenham, UK ; Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.

Bruni, L. i Sugden, R., 2007. The road not taken: How psychology was removed from economics, and how it might be brought back. The Economic Journal, 117(516), s. 146–173.

Caldwell, B., 1982. Beyond Positivism: Economic Methodology in the Twentieth Century. London: Allen and Unwin.

Caldwell, B., 1992. A Critique of Friedman’s Methodological Instrumentalism: A Modification. Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, 10, s. 119–128.

Callon, M., 2006. What Does It Mean to Say That Economics Is Performative? CSI Working Papers Series. [online] Paris: Centre de Sociologie de l’Innovation Ecole des Mines de Paris. Dostępne na: <https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00091596> [dostęp 29.08.2019].

Carnap, R., 1935. Philosophy and Logical Syntax. London: Kegan Paul.

Carnap, R., 1936. Logical Syntax of Language. London: Routledge Kegan Paul.

Coddington, A., 1975. The rationale of general equilibrium theory. Economic Inquiry, 13(4), s. 539–58.

Colander, D., 2000. The death of neoclassical economics. Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 22(2), s. 127–143.

Colander, D.C. i Su, H., 2018. How Economics Should Be Done: Essays on the Art and Craft of Economics. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Cowen, T., 1991. Self-constraint versus self-liberation. Ethics, 101(2), s. 360–373.

Czarny, B., 2010. Pozytywizm a sądy wartościujące w ekonomii. Warszawa: Oficyna Wydawnicza SGH.

Davis, J.B., 2003. The Theory of the Individual in Economics. London: Routledge.

Debreu, G., 1991. The mathematization of economic theory. The American Economic Review, 81(1), s. 1–7.

Dow, S.C., 2012. Foundations for New Economic Thinking: A Collection of Essays. Basingstoke - New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Drakopoulos, S.A. i Anastassios, D.K., 2005. A Review of Kuhnian and Lakatosian “Explanations” in Economics. History of Economic Ideas, 13(2), s. 51–73.

Elster, J. red., 1986. The Multiple Self. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Feyerabend, P., 1975. Against Method. London: Verso.

Fourcade, M., Ollion, E. i Algan, Y., 2015. The superiority of economists. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 29(1), s. 89–114.

Frederick, S., Loewenstein, G. i O’Donoghue, T., 2002. Time discounting and time preference: A critical review. Journal of Economic Literature, 40(2), s. 351–401.

Frey, B.S., 2010. Happiness A revolution in Economics. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Frey, B.S., 2018. Economics of Happiness. Cham: Springer.

Frey, B.S. i Stutzer, A., 2002. What can economists learn from happiness research? Journal of Economic Literature, 40(2), s. 402–435.

Friedman, M., 1953. Essays in Positive Economics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Friedman, M. i Friedman, R., 1980. Free to Choose: A Personal Statement. New York - London: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Fudenberg, D. i Levine, D.K., 2006. A dual-self model of impulse control. American Economic Review, 96(5), s. 1449–1476.

Hands, D.W., 1990. Second thoughts on ‘Second thoughts’: Reconsidering the Lakatosian progress of the general theory. Review of Political Economy, 2(1), s. 69–81.

Hands, D.W., 1993. Popper and Lakatos in economic methodology. W: B. Gustafsson i in., red., Rationality, Institutions and Economic Methodology. London: Routledge, s. 61–75.

Hands, D.W., 2001. Reflection Without Rules: Economic Methodology and Contemporary Science Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hands, D.W., 2007. Effective Tension in Robbins’s Economic Methodology. W: F. Cowell i A. Witztum, red., Lionel Robbins’ essay on the nature and significance of economic science. In 75th Anniversary Conference Proceedings. London: London School of Economics and Political Science, s. 152–168.

Hausman, D.M., 1992. The Inexact and Separate Science of Economics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hausman, D.M., McPherson, M.S. i Satz, D., 2017. Etyka ekonomii. Analiza ekonomiczna, filozofia moralności i polityka publiczna. tłum. T. Kwarciński i in. Kraków: Copernicus Center Press.

Hausman, D.M. i McPherson, M.C., 1993. Taking ethics seriously: Economics and contemporary moral philosophy. Journal of Economic Literature, 31(2), s. 671–731.

Hayek, F.A., 1988. The Fatal Conceit. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Heilmann, C., 2010. Rationality and time: a multiple-self model of personal identity over time for decision and game theory. [Doctoral dissertation, London School of Economics and Political Science] London. Dostępne na: <http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/2210> [dostęp 29.08.2019].

Hoyningen-Huene, P., 2017. Revisiting Friedman’s F53. Popper, Knight, and Weber. [Unpublished manuscript] Dostępne na: [dostęp 29.08.2019].

Hume, D., 1963. Traktat o naturze ludzkiej. tłum. C. Znamierowski. PWN.

Kahneman, D., Diener, E. i Schwarz, N. red., 1999. Well-being: Foundations of hedonic psychology. Russell Sage Foundation.

Kahneman, D., 2012. Pułapki myślenia. O myśleniu szybkim i wolnym. Poznań: Media Rodzina.

Kahneman, D. i Tversky, A., 1979. Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk. Econometrica, 47(2), s. 263–291.

Keynes, J.N., 1917. The Scope and Method of Political Economy. wyd. 4. London: Macmillan & Co.

Knight, F.H., 1921. Risk, Uncertainty and Profit. Boston; New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Kuhn, T., 1962. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Lakatos, I., 1970. Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes. W: I. Lakatos i A. Musgrave, red., Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, s. 91–196.

Lakatos, I., 1980. The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes: Philosphical Papers vol I.

Lakatos, I., 1995. Pisma z filozofii nauk empirycznych. Biblioteka Współczesnych Filozofów. tłum. W. Sady. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.

Lazear, E.P., 2000. Economic imperialism. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115(1), s. 99–146.

Loewenstein, G., 1996. Out of control: visceral influences on behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 65(3), s. 272–292.

Mäki, U., 2009a. Economics imperialism: Concept and constraints. Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 39(3), s. 351–380.

Mäki, U., 2009b. Unrealistic assumptions and unnecessary confusions: Rereading and rewriting F53 as a realist statement. W: U. Mäki, red., The Methodology of Positive Economics. Reflections on the Milton Friedman Legacy. Cambridge University Press, s. 90–116.

Mäki, U., Walsh, A. i Pinto, M.F. red., 2017. Scientific Imperialism: Exploring the Boundaries of Interdisciplinarity. Routledge.

Marchi, N.D. i Blaug, M., 1991. Appraising Economic Theories: Studies in the Methodology of Research Programs. Aldershot: Elgar.

McCloskey, D.N., 1998. The Rhetoric of Economics. Univ of Wisconsin Press.

Mirowski, P., 2002. Machine Dreams: Economics Becomes a Cyborg Science. Cambridge University Press.

Modigliani, F., 1966. The Life Cycle Hypothesis of Saving, the Demand for Wealth and the Supply of Capital. Social Research, 33(2), s. 160–217.

Mongin, P., 2006. Value judgments and value neutrality in economics. Economica, 73(290), s. 257–286.

Neurath, O., 1973. Anti-Spengler. W: M. Neurath i R.S. Cohen, red., Empiricism and Sociology. Dordrecht: Springer, s. 158–213.

Ostapiuk, A., 2017a. Matematyzacja ekonomii - grzech pierworodny? Wieloaspektowa analiza wpływu i przyczyn. Ekonomia XXI Wieku, 13(1), s. 91–105.

Ostapiuk, A., 2017b. Moralna ekonomia- homo oeconomicus jako istota pomagająca innym. Ekonomia XXI Wieku, 13(1), s. 70–91.

Ostapiuk, A., 2018. Human now versus human over time. When instrumental rationality and utility are not enough. Panoeconomicus. Advance online publication. [online] Dostępne na: <https://doi.org/10.2298/PAN161203026O>.

Popper, K.R., 2002. Logika odkrycia naukowego. wyd. 2. tłum. U. Niklas. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.

Putnam, H., 2002. The Collapse of the Fact/Value Dichotomy and Other Essays. Harvard University Press.

Putnam, H. i Walsh, V. red., 2011. The End of Value-Free Economics. Routledge.

Quine, W.V.O., 1951. Two Dogmas of Empiricism. The Philosophical Review, 60(1), s. 20–43.

Read, D., 2006. Which side are you on? The ethics of self-command. Journal of Economic Psychology, 27(5), s. 681–693.

Reiss, J., 2013. Philosophy of Economics: A Contemporary Introduction. Routledge.

Richardson, A., 2003. The geometry of knowledge: Lewis, Becker, Carnap and the formalization of philosophy in the 1920s. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 34(1), s. 165–182.

Robbins, L.R., 1932. An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science. London: Macmillan.

Rodrik, D., 2015. Economics Rules: The Rights and Wrongs of the Dismal Science. WW Norton & Company.

Samuelson, P., 1937. A Note on Measurement of Utility. The Review of Economic Studies, 4(2), s. 155–161.

Samuelson, P., 1938. A Note on the Pure Theory of Consumer’s Behaviour. Economica, 5(17), s. 61–71.

Samuelson, P., 1952. Economic Theory and Mathematics – an Appraisal. American Economic Review, 42(2), s. 56–66.

Samuelson, P., 1992. My Life Philosophy: Policy Credos and Working Ways. W: M. Szenberg, red., Eminent Economists: Their Life Philosophies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, s. 236–247.

Schelling, T.C., 1980. The intimate contest for self-command. Public Interest, 60, s. 94–116.

Schelling, T.C., 1984. Self-command in practice, in policy, and in a theory of rational choice. The American Economic Review, 74(2), s. 1–11.

Schelling, T.C., 1985. Enforcing rules on oneself. Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, 1(2), s. 357–374.

Schelling, T.C., 1996. Coping rationality with lapses from rationality. Eastern Economic Journal, 22(3), s. 251–269.

Sedláček, T., 2012. Ekonomia dobra i zła:. W poszukiwaniu istoty ekonomii od Gilgamesza do Wall Street. tłum. D. Bakalarz. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Studio EMKA.

Sen, A.K., 1971. Choice Functions and Revealed Preference. Review of Economic Studies, 38(3), s. 307–17.

Sen, A.K., 1973. Behaviour and the Concept of Preference. Economica, 40(159), s. 241–59.

Sen, A.K., 1977. Rational Fools: A Critique of the Behavioural Foundations of Economic Theory. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 6(4), s. 317–344.

Sen, A.K., 1987. On Ethics & Economics. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Sen, A.K., 1999. Development As Freedom. New York: Knopf.

Sen, A.K., 2002. Rationality and Freedom. Harvard University Press.

Simon, H.A., 1947. Administrative Behavior: a Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organization. The Free Press.

Smith, A., 1989. Teoria uczuć moralnych. Biblioteka Klasyków Filozofii. tłum. D. Petsch. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.

Stigler, G.J., 1950. The development of utility theory. I. Journal of Political Economy, 58(4), s. 307–327.

Strotz, R., 1955. Myopia and inconsistency in dynamic utility maximization. Review of Economic Studies, 23(2), s. 165–180.

Thaler, R.H., 1980. Toward a Positive Theory of Consumer Choice. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 1(1), s. 39–60.

Thaler, R.H., 2015. Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics. Norton & Company.

Thaler, R.H. i Shefrin, H.M., 1981. An economic theory of self-control. Journal of Political Economy, 89(2), s. 392–406.

Van Dalen, H.P., 2019. Values of economists matter in the art and science of economics. Kyklos, 72(3), s. 472–499.

Weber, M., 1949. The Methodology of the Social Sciences. tłum. E. Shils, i H. Finch. Glencoe: The Free Press.

Weintraub, R.E., 2002. How Economics Became a Mathematical Science. Durham: Duke University Press.

Witztum, A., 2007. Ethics and the Science of Economics: Robbins’s Enduring Fallacy. W: F. Cowell i A. Witztum, red., Lionel Robbins’ essay on the nature and significance of economic science. In 75th Anniversary Conference Proceedings. London, s. 57–85.

Wong, S., 2006. Foundations of Paul Samuelson’s Revealed Preference Theory: A study by the method of rational reconstruction. Routledge.

Yuengert, A.M., 2000. The Positive-Normative Distinction Before the Fact-Value Distinction. Malibu,CA: Pepperdine University.

Zboroń, H., 2013. Dyskurs metodologiczny we współczesnej ekonomii - próba dekonstrukcji podejścia modernistycznego. Studia Ekonomiczne, 1(76), s. 13–45.