European University Institute Library

Bettering humanomics, a new, and old, approach to economic science, Deirdre Nansen McCloskey

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

index present

non fiction

Bettering humanomics

bibliography

1199328452

Deirdre Nansen McCloskey

a new, and old, approach to economic science

"In Bettering Humanomics: A New and Old Approach to Economic Science, Deirdre Nansen McCloskey offers a critique of contemporary economics and a proposal for a better humanomics. McCloskey argues for an economic science that accepts the models and mathematics, the statistics and experiments of the current orthodoxy, but also attests to the immense amount we can still learn about human nature and the economy. From observing human actions in social contexts, to the various understandings attained by studying history, philosophy, and literature, McCloskey presents the myriad ways in which we think about life and how we justify and understand our actions in a synergistically human approach towards economic theory and practice"--, Provided by publisher

The proposal. Humanomics and liberty promise better economic science ; Adam Smith practiced humanomics, and so should we ; Economic history illustrates the problems with nonhumanomics ; An economic science needs the humanities ; It's merely a matter of common sense and intellectual free trade ; After all, sweet talk rules a free economy ; Therefore we should walk on both feet, like Ludwig Lachmann ; That is, economics needs theories of human minds beyond behaviorism -- The killer app. The killer app of humanomics is the evidence that the great enrichment came from ethics and rhetoric ; The dignity of liberalism did it ; Ideas, not incentives, underlie it ; Even as to time and location ; The word's the thing -- The doubts. Doubts by analytic philosophers about the killer app are not persuasive ; Nor by sociologists or political philosophers ; Nor even by economic historians