Review of Economic Philosophy

Tag: Economic Philosophy

  • Johann Gottlieb Fichte Reader of our Globalization. A Radical Criticism of International Trade

    Abstract

    Any nation participating in the international division of labor necessarily derives an economic advantage greater than if it was in a situation of self-sufficiency. This is the fundamental, normative message of all the theoretical approaches that have tried to understand the foundation of exchanges between countries. Protectionism is therefore often condemned by economists who see it as a brake on international movements of goods and services that is responsable for blocking growth and the rising of employment and livings standards. The issue at stake today concerning the gains and inequalities that nations and populations really derive from globalization suggests reopening the works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte whose contribution is no longer mentioned by any school of economic thought. In the case of a closed economy in particular, he severely criticized the economists who advocated either free trade or protectionism. Fichte believed that the advances in metaphysics should be applied to real life. This is the reason why his book contains of the first doctrines of state socialism. The state of globalization today surely gives a impetus to an approach now forgotten by most economists.

    Codes JEL: B1, B14, B17, B31, F51.

    [See the article on Cairn]

  • Economic philosophy and complexity

    Abstract

    Economic philosophy explores the conditions and limits of economic theory, the development of which implies an accelerated increase in complexity (which is the very definition of ’complexity’). Its first manifestations were the second theorem on general equilibrium, and the impossibility theorems on collective choice, as well as the public goods dilemma. For sure, it is possible to use certain factors of complexity, such as random mutations, to define, for example, evolutionary equilibria, but these factors are also a source of instability. Experimental economics had brought to light the dependence of our choices on our previous evolutions and references and expectations, which is another source of complexity. A rational exploration of these dependencies itself brings into play the complexity of their processes and involves continual revisions. It seems inevitable, since one cannot reduce the complexities which are inherent in these readjustments- which involve a generalized and multi-levels Bayesianism, -to admit that these revisions have only a limited scope (“minimizing free energy”). We can reinterpret in this way the experiences on temporal inconsistencies in our choices, once taken into account the application of this minimization to the very processes of evaluation of the situations of choice. Other limitations could be defined by combining neurological, psychological and economic constraints. Here again, such a combination is also a source of complexity. But in another way, developing these complex relationships can help overcome the circularities of inverse inference (from neurological to experimental economics and vice-versa). Finally, computational simulations reveal to us that evolutions which one believed to be asymptotic are capable of more remote divergences. Complicating computational models can limit their generality. Conversely, simplifying them is only useful if it also reveals which simplifications make us miss which complexity of economic interactions. The exploration of these relationships between this accelerated growth of complexity linked not only to these interactions but to the very enterprise of rationalizing them is first of all the task of economics in its various fields, but the philosophy of economy can have a role in elucidating the relationships between these different sources of complexity and their most reasonable modalities of limitations.

    Keywords

    , , , ,

    [Read the review in Cairn]

  • J. G. Fichte, Reader of our Globalization. A Radical Criticism of International Trade

    Abstract

    Any nation participating in the international division of labor necessarily derives an economic advantage greater than if it was in a situation of self-sufficiency. This is the fundamental, normative message of all the theoretical approaches that have tried to understand the foundation of exchanges between countries. Protectionism is therefore often condemned by economists who see it as a brake on international movements of goods and services that is responsable for blocking growth and the rising of employment and livings standards. The issue at stake today concerning the gains and inequalities that nations and populations really derive from globalization suggests reopening the works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte whose contribution is no longer mentioned by any school of economic thought. In the case of a closed economy in particular, he severely criticized the economists who advocated either free trade or protectionism. Fichte believed that the advances in metaphysics should be applied to real life. This is the reason why his book contains of the first doctrines of state socialism. The state of globalization today surely gives a impetus to an approach now forgotten by most economists.

    Outline

    • 1. L’incursion du philosophe dans le champ de la science économique
      1. 1.1. Un livre dans son contexte
      2. 1.2. Le libre-Échange, c’est la guerre
    • 2. La pensée économique de fichte en résonance avec l’état présent du monde
      1. 2.1. Coopération versus conflictualité : le temps présent de la mondialisation
      2. 2.2. Fichte, la souveraineté totale et l’alimentation
      3. 2.3. L’agriculture et l’alimentation : de convoitises, de guerres commerciales, en fermeture potentielle
    • Conclusion

    Keywords

    , , ,

    Codes JEL : B1, B14, B17, B31, F51

    [Read the article in Cairn]