Philosophy in economics : papers deriving from and related to a Workshop on Testability and Explanation in Economics, held at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1979
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Bibliographic Information
Philosophy in economics : papers deriving from and related to a Workshop on Testability and Explanation in Economics, held at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1979
（The University of Western Ontario series in philosophy of science, v. 16）
D. Reidel Pub. Co. , sold and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada by Kluwer Boston, c1981
- : pbk
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Note
Includes bibliographies and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
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ISBN 9789027712103
Description
The essays in this volume are the result of a workshop held at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in April, 1979. The assembled group was diverse, comprised of philosophers, economists, and statisticians. But it was not the complete group on which we had initially planned. Richard Rudner was in France on sabbatical and was unable to fly back for the occa sion. His untimely death the following summer saddened us all, for we lost not just a colleague but a friend. This book is dedicated to him out of the spirit of friendship and in appreciation for the ground breaking work he did in the philosophy of the social sciences. In addition to the participants, a number of people worked very hard to make our gathering possible. We are especially indebted to Dean Henry Bauer, Dean Ernie Stout and Dean John Ballweg of the College of Arts and Sciences at Virginia Tech for their good will and support, both moral and substantive. We would also like to thank Professor Guy Hammond, Head, Department of Philosophy and Religion, for his council and assistance. Our special thanks to Jeanne Keister and Betty Davis for their patience with unending typing and reservations, and finally to Barbara Kersey, always at hand, ever helpful. Without them nothing would have transpired.
Table of Contents
On the Role of Fundamental Theory in Positive Economics.- Are General Equilibrium Theories Explanatory?.- New Consumer Theory and the Relations Between Goods.- A Skeptical History of Microeconomic Theory.- Neo-Utilitarian Ethics and the Ordinal Representation Assumption.- Constitutional Choice: Rawls versus Harsanyi.- Some Implications of 'Theory Absorption' for Economic Theory and the Economics of Information.- On the Use of Laboratory Experiments in Economics.- Some Logic and History of Hypothesis Testing.- Testing Statistical Testing.
- Volume
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: pbk ISBN 9789027712424
Description
Years ago, prompted by Grize, Apostel and Papert, we undertook the study of functions, but until now we did not properly understand the relations between functions and operations, and their increasing interactions at the level of 'constituted functions'. By contrast, certain recent studies on 'constitutive functions', or preoperatory functional schemes, have convinced us of the existence of a sort of logic of functions (springing from the schemes of actions) which is prior to the logic of operations (drawn from the general and reversible coordinations between actions). This preoperatory 'logic' accounts for the very general, and until now unexplained, primacy of order relations between 4 and 7 years of age, which is natural since functions are ordered dependences and result from oriented 'applications'. And while this 'logic' ends up in a positive manner in formalizable structures, it has gaps or limitations. Psychologically, we are interested in understanding the system atic errors due to this primacy of order, such *as the undifferentiation of 'longer' and 'farther', or the non-conservations caused by ordinal estimations (of levels, etc. ), as opposed to extensive or metric evaluations. In a sense which is psychologically very real, this preoperatory logic of constitutive functions represents only the first half of operatory logic, if this can be said, and it is reversibility which allows the construction of the other half by completing the initial one-way structures.
Table of Contents
I/From Constitutive Functions to Constituted Functions.- 1. The Coordination of Pairs.- 2. From Constitutive Functions to Equivalence Classes.- 3. From Regularities to Proportionalities.- 4. An Example of Causal and Spatial Functions.- 5. From Coproperties to Covariations: The Equalization and Estimation of Inequalities.- 6. The Composition of Differences: Unequal Partitions.- 7. An Example of the Composition of the Variations of Variations.- II/The Quantification of Constituted Functions.- 8. The Functional Relation between the Increase and the Decrease of Both Sides of a Rectangle Having a Constant Perimeter - The Transformations of the Perimeter of a Square.- 9. Serial Regularities and Proportions.- 10. The Relation between the Size of a Wheel and the Distance Travelled.- 11. The Establishment of a Functional Relation among Several Variables: Distance Travelled, Wheel Size and Rotational Frequency.- 12. The Inverse Proportional Relationship between Weight W and Distance D (Arm of a Lever) in the Equilibrium of a Balance.- 13. Conclusion of Chapters 8 to 12: The General Evolution of Behaviors.- III/Theoretical Problems.- 14. Analyses to Aid in the Epistemological Study of the Notion of Function.- 15. General Conclusions.
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