Although the relation between Economics and Biology is not that apparent at a first glance, both sciences have found overlapping points along their own history. It was Thomas Malthus’s theory about population growth that in some way inspired Charles Darwin to come up with his famous and bedrock theory of evolution through natural selection. More recently, a discussion has been sparked about whether Darwinian ideas can help Economics understand better human behavior. This is because much of the economic theory is based on a stylized conception of man, homo economicus, who thinks and acts rationally, but this stylization ultimately leads to false predictions and poor explanations of historical data. An example of this is the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), which fails to predict economic crises and explain stock market bubbles.
Therefore, there is a need to improve these outcomes by including tools from other sciences, such as Biology. Darwinism may seem as a plausible tool to boost the scientific character of Economics. In order to analyze this possibility, this paper considers Darwin’s theory that is embedded into Quine’s naturalized epistemology. In addition, a short description of how such ideas blend is presented first, and then a response to the question of whether this possibility of incorporating Darwinian ideas is true for Economics as a science.
Willard Quine took some neo-Darwinist ideas as a scientific resource for his naturalized epistemology. The aim was to illustrate how epistemology could be naturalized, without falling into relativistic or radical-naturalist views of science. With neo-Darwinism in the scene, it is easier to understand why humans understand some of the irregularities of the world and even so...
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The book” Freakonomics” is by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. The title, “Freakonomics”, is a combination of two words: Freak (which means quirky, unusual, or weird) and economics, but in the sense of economic related to economic activity; the economics that consumer, families and businesses encounter every day. The title reflects the author’s name of the method of economic analysis in aspects of everyday life that normally fall outside the scope of the work of economists. The author’s success is due to the fact that this is a fun book to read, with a little dose of humor. No one can resist investigating the answer to questions like, "What do common schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? “ Or “Why drug dealers live with their mothers? “. But beyond anecdotes, the case studies presented in the book show some controversial findings, such as linking the decrease in violence in the United States to the legalization of abortion .The really interesting thing is that the book shows the true activities performed by economists that the general public usually does not know about.
"On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life," usually shortened to "the Origin of Species," is the full title of Charles Darwin's book, first published in 1859, in which Darwin formalized what we know today as the Theory of Evolution. Although Darwin is the most famous exponent of this theory, he was by no means the first person to suspect the workings of evolution. In fact, Charles owed a considerable debt to his grandfather Erasmus, a leading scientist and intellectual, who published a paper in 1794, calledZoonomia, or, The Laws of Organic Life. This set down many of the ideas that his grandson elaborated on 70 years later.
Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus have all greatly influenced how people thought about modern economics, especially in areas relating to markets, in terms of the economy and whether certain things affected population rates. In this essay I will cover each of the three topic areas and how each economist interpreted these areas in order to explain why certain phenomena occur within British economics, most of which are still widely accepted today.
The theory of Social Darwinism stems from the idea that the human species can progress by following the principal of Charles Darwin’s natural selection, in which he states that plants and animals that can adapt to changes in their environment are able to survive and reproduce, while those that cannot adapt will die. Social Darwinists applied this biological concept to social, political and economic issues, which created the “survival of the fittest” attitude, as well as competition and inequality between social groups. This paper will discuss some of the proponents of this theory, the results of their interpretation and application of the theory, and why this theory no longer holds a prominent position in Anthropological theory.
Gaynor Ellis, Elisabeth, and Anthony Esler. ""New Economic Thinking"" World History: The Modern Era. Prentice Hall. 186. Print.
ABSTRACT: My aim is to raise two points against naturalizing epistemology. First, against Quine’s version of naturalizing epistemology, I claim that the traditional questions of epistemology are indispensable, in that they impose themselves in every attempt to construct an epistemology. These epistemological questions are pre- and extra-scientific questions; they are beyond the scientific domain of research, thus, for a distinct province of inquiry. Second, I claim that no naturalistic account can be given as an answer to the traditional question of justification. I take Goldman’s and Haack’s accounts as examples to support my claim. The traditional demand of justification is to start from nowhere. Naturalizing justification is to start form somewhere. The two approaches are, thus, necessarily incompatible with each other. So, the accounts given by the naturalists are not answers to the traditional problem of justification. To remain compatible with themselves, the naturalists should have conceded that the problem of justification is illegitimate or incoherent. The fact that they did not I take as additional evidence to support my claim that the traditional questions of epistemology are indispensable: they impose themselves and are, thus, hard to eliminate.
Throughout time, the human knowledge of economics has evolved and expanded. The discovery of this knowledge has been expedited, in many cases, due to a handful of brilliant minds. The work that these minds have contributed has helped to progress the human race, and helped further our understanding of economics. William Petty is one of those minds. Sir William Petty was an English economist, physician, and surveyor whose resume would impress even the most qualified. Petty began his life at the bottom of the barrel and worked up to the top, even becoming a knight along the way. William Petty’s influences were rooted in the teachings of Thomas Hobbes and Francis Bacon, and his views on natural law are clearly reflected in his work. Sir William
Most disputes, especially political ones, center around one idea: whether following the precepts of the past or looking to the future is best for a society. In the mid-1900s, Charles Darwin looked toward the future with his own ideas about the world and brought the longstanding argument to the forefront. Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s Inherit the Wind portray how a small town’s myopic view and ignorant attitude displaced it from the world and resulted in a freethinking man’s incrimination.
Hutcheon, P.D. Leaving the Cave: Evolutionary Naturalism in Social Scientific Thought. Ithaca: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1996.
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Riddell, T., Shackelford, J., Schneider, G., & Stamos, S. (2011). Economics: A Tool for Critically Understanding Society (Ninth Edition). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
This first chapter starts with Darwin’s ideas of species, developing this new theory “on the origin of species”.
Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) is an ex ante concept, which is built on the portfolio theory established by Markowitz (Bhatnagar and Ramlogan 2012). It enhances the understanding of elements of asset prices, specifically the linear relationship between risk and expected return (Perold 2004). The direct correlation between risk and return is well defined by the security market line (SML), where market risk of an asset is associated with the return and risk of the market along with the risk free rate to estimate expected return on an asset (Watson and Head 1998 cited in Laubscher 2002).
The crucial importance and relevance of economics related disciplines to the modern world have led me to want to pursue the study of these social sciences at a higher level. My study of Economics has shown me the fundamental part it plays in our lives and I would like to approach it with an open mind - interested but not yet fully informed.