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Hi It seems to me there is a striking similarity between Economics and Philosophy. It's hard to find the words, but I feel like the 'same parts' of my brain are being used when I am trying to solve a philosophical problem (generally) and when I think about a problem in economics (and this isn't the case in other Arts subjects). It could be because the problems in economics overlap with problems in philosophy but I feel there's more to this intuition (something methodological?) than that. It is no surprise many prominent philosophers contributed greatly to the field of economics (JS Mill, Hume, A Smith, Marx, etc) and Philosophy/Economics majors score closely in standardized tests like the LSAT. Is this an impression that is common amongst professional philosophers?
Miriam Solomon
October 18, 2012
(changed October 18, 2012)
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You make an interesting observation about yourself that is important to contextualize. You find a similarity between the kind of economics you are learning and the kind of philosophy you are learning. I dare say that if you were reading Jean Paul Sartre you would find different "parts of... Read more
Hi It seems to me there is a striking similarity between Economics and Philosophy. It's hard to find the words, but I feel like the 'same parts' of my brain are being used when I am trying to solve a philosophical problem (generally) and when I think about a problem in economics (and this isn't the case in other Arts subjects). It could be because the problems in economics overlap with problems in philosophy but I feel there's more to this intuition (something methodological?) than that. It is no surprise many prominent philosophers contributed greatly to the field of economics (JS Mill, Hume, A Smith, Marx, etc) and Philosophy/Economics majors score closely in standardized tests like the LSAT. Is this an impression that is common amongst professional philosophers?
Miriam Solomon
October 18, 2012
(changed October 18, 2012)
Permalink
You make an interesting observation about yourself that is important to contextualize. You find a similarity between the kind of economics you are learning and the kind of philosophy you are learning. I dare say that if you were reading Jean Paul Sartre you would find different "parts of... Read more
Hey, I'm a freshman majoring in philosophy and economics. My question is: is this a good combination for graduate school in philosophy? Thanks
Eddy Nahmias
October 18, 2012
(changed October 18, 2012)
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Yes! Especially if you are interested in the philosophy of economics, which is a small but vibrant subfield. Just make sure you've got enough philosophy classes (and letter writers) to present yourself well for grad schools.
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Is it possible to make a legally meaningful distinction between porn which is abusive and porn which is very rough? I think this question is very relevant for our time.
Richard Heck
October 17, 2012
(changed October 17, 2012)
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Some people think that all pornography is, in some sense, abusive. Maybe that's even analytic, if one distinguishes "pornography" from "erotica", as many people do. For what it's worth, I doubt there's any very clean way to make that distinction (these look like what Bernard Williams called... Read more
Could someone explain the Frege's puzzle? Is it directly related to semantic stuff? How?
Richard Heck
October 17, 2012
(changed October 17, 2012)
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I could explain the puzzle, but there are already good explanations at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
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I'm in the middle of writing a thesis on tourists negotiating confrontations with poverty while on holiday in third world countries. It is easy to see that these confrontations touch on ethics and justice as the tourists are (relatively) rich, their hosts are poor and tourism is about enjoying luxuries (hedonism) while around the 'tourist bubbles' people are struggling. Considering this I focus on how tourists 'legitimise themselves', using discourse analysis (which discursive techniques do tourists employ) following Foucault on power and truth within constructivism, making sidesteps to Baumann (exclusion), Stanley Cohen (states of denial) and Zizek (cultural capitalism). Do you have any more ideas on how I could elaborate on these issues using philosophy? Please point me in the right direction of interesting (modern, postmodern, critical) philosophies!
Charles Taliaferro
October 17, 2012
(changed October 17, 2012)
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What a fascinating project!It seems as though you are very good on resources! I have only two suggestions that you may (or may not!) wish to explore: you might consider how to assess and perhaps how to educate tourists on issues of global justice. Amartya Sen's The Idea of Justice an... Read more
Is the expression "white trash" racist toward non-whites because it implies that non-whites or certain non-white races are "trash" by default? Does the expression really imply that though? That is, is it (either the expression itself or the utterance, considered as separate questions) racist if we look at the expression in itself without considering whether a person understands its implied meaning? Perhaps we could also ask if maybe those who don't understand its implied meaning still have an unconscious understanding of its actual meaning and are therefor racist for making an utterance of that expression? Obviously the expression is an expression of class contempt which is arguably as ugly as racism but that's another issue.
Oliver Leaman
October 12, 2012
(changed October 12, 2012)
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It is racist and you cannot divorce a statement from its implied meaning. That is what implied meaning means!
In the part of the United States in which I live "white trash" is often used to describe white people who live like black people, and the expectation is obviously that this is inap... Read more
Is it morally wrong to eat my pet dog? Why is it right to eat beef and pork, but our pets?
Allen Stairs
October 12, 2012
(changed October 12, 2012)
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I agree with Andrew: the dog/pig distinction won't get us anywhere. And I might even be persuaded that we shouldn't eat animals at all. But there's a sliver of a distinction that may be worth noting.If a stranger asks me to drive him to the grocery store, I don't have any obligation to say y... Read more
What are the effects of Russell and Analytic Philosophy on American education?
Stephen Maitzen
October 12, 2012
(changed October 12, 2012)
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Far too few, unfortunately.
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Help me know if I have the Big bang theory down correctly. It consists of the following ideas. 1. The big bang theory is usually or often seen as a naturalistic hypothesis where only physical reality is truly real. 2. The universe is a physical reality. 3. There was no physical reality prior to the universe. 4. The universe began with the Big Bang. 5. There was no universe (or physical reality) prior to the Big Bang. 6. It follows from 1-5 that nothing whatsoever existed prior to the Big Bang. 7. The objection of so how did the universe come about if there was nothing prior to the big bang is that time only began with the big bang. To speak of a beginning implies an occurrence within time. It is therefor circular to say that time began with the beginning(of time). I think that what is happening here is that a rejection of (traditional metaphysical)philosophy and even common sense means that science has become a new form of irrational religion in our day. What do you philosophers have to say about this? And who else besides me has noticed a circularity within the idea that time began at a certain point?
Allen Stairs
October 11, 2012
(changed October 11, 2012)
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I'd say that you don't have the Big Bang theory down correctly if by the Big Bang Theory you mean what physicists mean. Whether a physicist accepts some version of the Big Bang account as a piece of physical cosmology and whether the physicist believes that nothing is real except for the phy... Read more