Faculty Colloquium - "What is economics for?"
Wednesday, February 6, 2019 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm EST/GMT-5Bard College Berlin Cafeteria, Waldstr. 70, Berlin - Pankow
A talk by Brendan Hogan (New York University)
The 2008 global economic crisis reinvigorated debate in the public sphere over the adequacy of the main tools economists were using to carry out their task as social scientists. What many discovered who had not looked earlier is that there has been a debate over the methodological foundations and practice of economics that stretches back to its inception. The discipline of economics has over time institutionalized a methodological mainstream, or orthodoxy, of economic science, neoclassical economics. Despite what has been labeled as a kind of paradigm shift in the discipline as the result of these methodological debates, it shares with its aspiring successor, behavioral economics, a vision of economics as a science. It is helpful, however, to step back and question the deeper assumptions about human beings, social science, and democracy that fund these two visions. We can then ask the question as to whether or not either provide a satisfactory answer to the question 'What is economics for?'.
Brendan Hogan is Clinical Associate Professor in Global Liberal Studies at New York University. He received his doctorate in philosophy from The New School for Social Research. He has taught for NYU at four campuses in New York University’s global network: New York City, Paris, Florence, and London. His research is focused on questions in philosophy of social science, political philosophy, and pragmatism, more broadly speaking. His current research involves drawing out the consequences of pragmatism for understanding the relationship between social science and democracy. In particular, he has focused on the model of rationality and action in economics and its impact on policy, institutions, and social practices. He is spending the academic year 2018-19 as a research fellow at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales.
Date & time: Wednesday, February 6, 2019, from 12:30pm
Venue: Bard College Berlin Cafeteria
Waldstr. 70, Berlin - Pankow
Email: [email protected]