The practical power of philosophy: the case of economics
Details
TOPIC
Philosophy can be seen as an impractical subject for dreamers and academics. But sometimes understanding how we think and the implications of that can have immediate, practical use.
Take economics. How the majority of academics and experts think about the economy has direct impact on your life.
For instance, they tend to think about the economy as a system that is self-balancing or equalising ie markets tending to clear. As a result, they couldn’t see the 07/08 crash coming as it didn’t fit into how they thought about the economy. They also didn’t see finance as significantly affecting the real economy so their models didn’t include the finance sector.
Other key policies over the last decades such as privatisation and outsourcing have also been a result of economic thinking - with a blindness for their unintended consequences.
ISSUES TO DEBATE
• How can we use philosophy to rethink the economy?
• Are there other ways of thinking that could be more useful?
• How can we bring attention to these different ways of thinking?
OUR SPEAKER
Henry Leveson-Gower has worked for more than 20 years as an environmental economist, informing policy in government. He also studied Philosophy before training as an economist.
https://ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/images/cleardot.gif Seeking to improve how the world thinks about economics, Henry promotes reform in the economics profession towards taking a more practical pluralist (horses for courses) approach to economics.
SCHEDULE
6:30 Doors open
7:00 Main talk
7:40 Q & A
8:00 Treats and drink break
8:20 Small group discussion and debate
9:00 End