HUMANA.MENTE Journal of Philosophical Studies
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VOLUME 10 ——— Journal of Philosophical Studies JJUULLYYJULY 101010 220000992009 PPhhiilloossoopphhyPhilosophyy of Economics EDITED BY MAURO ROSSI & LAURA BERITELLI QUARTERLY JOURNAL - ISSN: 1972-1293 JJOURNALOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES Biblioteca Filosofica © 2007 - Humana.Mente, Periodico trimestrale di Filosofia, edito dalla Biblioteca Filosofica - Sezione Fiorentina della Società Filosofica Italiana, con sede in via del Parione 7, 50123 Firenze (c/o la Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione dell'Università degli Studi di Firenze) - Pubblicazione regolarmente iscritta al Registro Stampa Periodica del Tribunale di Firenze con numero 5585 dal 18/6/2007. REDAZIONE - Via del Parione 7, Firenze, presso Biblioteca Filosofica - Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione, Università degli Studi di Firenze ♦ Direttore editoriale: Alberto Peruzzi ♦ Direttore responsabile: Duccio Manetti ♦ Vice Direttore: Silvano Zipoli ♦ Supervisore scientifico: Marco Salucci Redattori e Area di Ricerca: Elena Acuti - Filosofia Politica Scilla Bellucci - Filosofia del Linguaggio / Antropologia Filosofica Laura Beritelli - Filosofia del Linguaggio / Ermeneutica Filosofica Alberto Binazzi - Filosofia della Mente / Scienze Cognitive Matteo Borri - Filosofia e Storia della Scienza Roberto Ciuni - Ontologia / Logica Giovanni Casini - Filosofia della Scienza / Logica Chiara Erbosi - Bioetica / Filosofia della Mente Marco Fenici - Logica / Scienze Cognitive Riccardo Furi - Filosofia della Mente Tommaso Geri - Filosofia del Linguaggio / Ermeneutica Filosofica Matteo Leoni - Antropologia Filosofica Stefano Liccioli - Filosofia Morale Umberto Maionchi - Filosofia della Scienza / Logica / Filosofia del Linguaggio Francesco Mariotti - Storia e Filosofia delle Neuroscienze / Filosofia della Mente Giovanni Pancani - Filosofia Politica / Antropologia Filosofica Daniele Romano - Filosofia e Storia della Scienza Silvano Zipoli - Filosofia e Storia della Scienza Segretario di Redazione: Matteo Leoni I contenuti di Humana.Mente sono sottoposti a refereeing Il comitato scientifico della rivista è composto dai membri del Consiglio Direttivo della Biblioteca Filosofica Progetto Grafico: Duccio Manetti Sito web: www.humana-mente.it La struttura del sito è realizzata da Emiliano Mazzetti e Simone Gallorini Per informazioni e collaborazioni: [email protected] Humana.Mente, Issue 10 – July 2009 INDEX p. I INTRODUCTION Philosophy of Economics – Mauro Rossi p. III PREFACE Editorial – Laura Beritelli p. VII COLUMN Philosophically Incorrect: Crisi Economica. Una modesta riflessione p. XI EVENTS Neuroeconomics: Hype or Hope – Rotterdam, 20‐22 November, 2008 p. XV (reviewed by FederiCa Russo) Decision, Games and Logic – HEC Lausanne, 15‐17 June, 2009 p. XVII (reviewed by Umberto Grandi) Laboratorio di Ontologia Applicata – FlorenCe, July, 2009 p. XIX (paper edited by Roberta Lanfredini & Alessandro Bemporad) PAPERS Esperimenti paradigmatici: il gioco dell’Ultimatum ‐ FranCesCo Guala p. 1 Scientific Unification in Economics ‐ Caterina MarChionni p. 11 Causal Arrows in Econometric Models ‐ FederiCa Russo p. 25 What Can Neuroscience Offer to Economics? ‐ Matteo Colombo p. 41 A Neuroeconomic Perspective on CharitaBle Giving ‐ David Yokum, p. 59 Filippo Rossi Why Cognitivists ABout Practical Reason Can Only Be Semi‐ p. 73 Cognitivists ‐ GiaComo Mollo Comparing Preferences ‐ Mauro Rossi p. 93 Does Freedom of Choice Cause Satisfaction? ‐ Margherita Bottero p. 111 Understanding Marx’s Normative Critique of Capitalism: Reification p. 123 Revisited ‐ Volkan Çıdam BOOK REVIEWS Filosofia dell’Economia, by Daniel M. Hausman p. 141 (reviewed by Alberto Binazzi) The New Spirit of Capitalism, by LuC Boltanski & Ève Chiapello p. 143 (reviewed by Georg Hull) Critica della ragione economica, edited by Matteo Motterlini & p. 147 Massimo Piattelli Palmarini (reviewed by Alberto Binazzi) The Culture of New Capitalism, by RiChard Sennett p. 151 (reviewed by MarCo Solinas) Equilibriun in Economics: Scope and Limits, by Valeria Mosini p. 155 (reviewed by Giovanni Casini) Etica ed economia: il rapporto possibile, edited by B. Giovanola e F. p. 159 Totaro (reviewed by Chiara Erbosi) Economia e concezione dell'uomo, edited by P. Grasselli p. 163 (reviewed by SCilla BelluCCi) Freakonomics, by Steven Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner p. 167 (reviewed by Chiara Erbosi) Capitalismo Totale, by Jean Peyerelevade (reviewed by RiCCardo Furi) p. 171 Oikonomia, edited by Edoardo Ferrario (reviewed by RiCCardo Furi) p. 173 COMMENTARIES Il capitale, Karl Marx (Commented by M. Sattler) p. 177 La grande trasformazione, Karl Polanij (Commented by G. PanCani) p. 181 Problemi epistemologici dell'economia, L.V. Mises p. 185 (Commented by A. Binazzi) Sulla natura e sull'importanza della scienza economica, L. Robbins p. 191 (Commented by S. BelluCCi) Il grande crollo/Storia dell'economia, J.K. Galbraith p. 195 (Commented by G. PanCani) Micromotives and Macrobehavior, T. SChellling p. 199 (Commented by P. Maffezioli) Etica ed economia, A. Sen (Commented by the Editorial Staff) p. 207 Il banchiere dei poveri, M. Yunus (Commented by the Editorial Staff) p. 209 La Globalizzazione e i suoi oppositori/La Globalizzazione che funziona, p. 211 J.E. Stiglitz (Commented by G. PanCani) Economie senza denaro, M. Pittau (Commented by S. LiCCioli) p. 215 NeuroEconomics: an Introductory Review, edited by Matteo BaCCarini & p. 219 Silvano Zipoli Caiani INTERVIEWS Interview with RICCARDO DUGINI (Dirigente BanCa EtiCa Firenze) – p. 233 edited by SCilla BelluCCi & Laura Beritelli Introduction Philosophy of Economics – An Introduction Mauro Rossi [email protected] The economic science has rarely been immune from contrasts and contradictions. Originally a branch of moral philosophy, economics emerged as an autonomous field of social scientific enquiry little more than 200 years ago. In the wake of the natural sciences’ dramatic success, economists soon embraced a methodology that treated economic phenomena simply as another class of natural phenomena. This methodological stance progressively led to a more and more formal and rigorous analysis, characterised by a growing mathematization of economic models. Since then, economics has not ceased to receive the admiration of other, more recent, social sciences and its methodology has often been considered as an example to imitate by all those who have been impressed by the precision of its formal results. Nevertheless, the history of economics is far from being a collection of triumphs. Indeed, the economic science’s sophisticated formal analysis and its reputation for methodological accuracy often contrasted with poor predictions, explanations and interpretations of real economic events. The systemic crises that periodically shake the world economy cast a dark light on the practical efficacy of the economic science. It appeared as if economics was destined to be a “dismal science” not because of the unwelcome content of its long‐term predictions, as Malthus – one of the founder of modern economics – believed, but because of its incapacity to get things right. Further, these failures offered an easy empirical argument to all those eager to express their dissent against the naturalistic methodology embraced by mainstream economics. While orthodox economists defended their approach by appealing to the yet young state of economic research, it seemed to more heterodox economists that the contrast between theoretical and practical results justified a more serious complaint about the usefulness of the naturalistic approach to economic phenomena. More specifically, it seemed to them that, qua science of human and social behaviour, economics needed a distinctive method of analysis, different from the one employed for studying natural phenomena. These tendencies are still alive nowadays. However, they somehow take different forms and expressions in the light of a new phenomenon, which has characterised the last two decades, namely, the growing exchange between economics and other disciplines (e.g. psychology, anthropology, neuroscience, ethics), which followed years of reciprocal isolation and mutual disinterest. Indeed, this interdisciplinary exchange has drawn renovated attention on some of the contrasting features that have characterised the history of economics. On the one hand, the influence that economics exercises on other research areas has assumed a more pronounced and direct form. The appeal of economics is no longer confined to its methodology, but it derives also from the flexibility of its theories and models, which makes them more and more frequently chosen tools for explaining phenomena pertaining to different domains of research. A clear example of this tendency is the development, in recent years, of various accounts trying to explain, for instance, the evolution of moral norms (e.g. Binmore 2005, Bicchieri 2006, McKenzie 2007) and the behaviour of the human brain (e.g. Platt and Glimcher 1999) by means of the extensive employment of game‐ and decision‐ theoretic resources. III Humana.Mente – Issue 10 – July 2009 On the other hand, the results obtained in research areas outside economics (e.g. social psychology, cognitive science and experimental philosophy) have provided further support to the doubts raised by the predictive failures of the economic science. Indeed, the unprecedented availability of empirical studies concerning human brain and behaviour has put into question the core assumptions on which mainstream economics is based, namely, that individuals are self‐interested agents