Stephen Hicks, Ph.D.

Seminar on “Economics as a Value Science”

Part of a work-in-progress in philosophy of economics, here is the video of a seminar I led on “Economics as a Value Science.” Part of my argument is that there is a large, problematic gap in economic theory about the relationship between economic facts and economic values. Along the way I discuss Friedrich Hayek, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Rudolf Carnap, Richard Rorty, Milton Friedman, Joseph Schumpeter, Ludwig von Mises, Aristotle, and Ayn Rand. The table of contents of the seminar are below the video frame.

Seminar contents:

Introduction
Philosophical issues in economics
David Hume
Immanuel Kant
Philosophical dichotomies
Implications for economics

Economic agents
Policy recommendations
Nature of philosophers
Value
Irrational values and biases

Positivism: Rudolf Carnap
Postmodernism: Richard Rorty

Free-market economists on facts and values:
Quote: Human Action, Ludwig von Mises
Quote: The Methodology of Positive Economics, Milton Friedman
Quote: Rules and Order, Friedrich A. Hayek

Dichotomous problems
Quote: A History of Economic Analysis, Joseph Schumpeter

The Aristotelian approach
Objectivity or subjectivity of values
Objective value thesis
Subjective value thesis

Three-way debate:
Intrinsic value thesis
Subjective thesis
Objective thesis

Values as a species of facts
Biological perspective
Fish example: Facts, Values
Value statements
Human beings: Facts, Values

Value examples
Implications for the subjectivity and objectivity of value
Human valuing
Individuality
Authoritarianism
Free society

Epistemological resources on natural and objective value
Final words
Final credits

The above video at UFM’s site.

Seminar: Philosophy and the Evolution of the Mixed Economy

One of my talks at Francisco Marroquín University was on making sense of our mixed economy–an unwieldy combination of market and socialist elements. The 28-minute talk integrates themes from my intellectual heroes–Smith, Mill, Mises, Hayek, Rand, Popper, Friedman, Buchanan, and Tullock–and connects market economics, politics, ethics, history, and public choice to explaining our semi-coherent mixed economy. The flowchart worked through is online here.

Related:
The above talk at UFM’s site.
The flowchart: Pathologies of the mixed economy (or, How we got into this frackin’ mess).
The previous talk referred to at the beginning: Seminar on entrepreneurial ethics.
Interview with UFM’s Luis Figueroa on Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility.

My upcoming lectures at Universidad Francisco Marroquín

From November 3 to 6, I will be giving an invited series of lectures and seminars (nine hours worth of them!) at the Francisco Marroquín University in Guatemala.

My general themes will be entrepreneurship, ethics, philosophy, and political economy.

The times titles of my various talks are as follows.

Open Lecture (Thursday, November 3): “Entrepreneurs and Philosophers: Why a Philosophy of Freedom Matters.”

Luncheon Seminar (Friday, November 4): “Economics as a Value Science.”

Full-day Seminar (Saturday, November 5): “Philosophy for Economists and Economics for Philosophers.” Sub-units for the day:

1. Philosophy and the Evolution of the Mixed Economy

2. On the Best Arguments against Free-Market Capitalism
“Socialism is moral even if it isn’t practical.”
“Wealth is a social creation.”
“We live in a world of scarce resources.”
“The free market is dog-eat-dog.”
“Humans are too depraved for freedom.”
“Humans are too incompetent for freedom.”
“Value is not of the material world.”

3. Ethics and Political-Economy
Entrepreneurship and Virtue Ethics
Objective, Subjective, and Intrinsic Value
Egoism, Altruism, and Predation
The Entrepreneurial Life

4. Government in a Free Society
What government is—the what and the how
Legislating morality

5. The Case for the Free Society
Moral and Economic Arguments for Freedom
Empirical Data and Theoretical Principles
“What” and “How” Arguments
Integrating Friedman, Hayek, and Rand
The Positive and the Negative Cases for Freedom

6. Freedom and the Meaning of Life

Thanks to UFM’s Centro Henry Hazlitt for sponsoring my visit.

Interview with Douglas Den Uyl on “The Essence of Capitalism”

Douglas Den Uyl spoke at Rockford College on four competing (and/or compatible?) theories of the nature of capitalism: Milton Friedman’s “Utility” account, Friedrich Hayek’s “Epistemic” account, Adam Smith’s “Aesthetic” account, and Ayn Rand’s “Self-Fulfillment” account.

Here is my sixteen-minute interview with Dr. Den Uyl following his lecture:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Cross-posted at the CEE site.

APEE talk on the mixed economy

At the APEE conference next month in Las Vegas, I will be presenting “The Evolution of the Mixed Economy - A Schematic Approach.”

My talk integrates themes from several major thinkers from whom I have learned a great deal: Adam Smith, Ludwig von Mises, Ayn Rand, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, James Buchanan, and Gordon Tullock.

The talk’s outline is based on this flow chart posted earlier under the title “Pathologies of the mixed economy (or, How we got into this frackin’ mess).”

For the conference I’ve also organized two other sessions: Ethics and the Financial Crisis and Reason in Hayek and Rand.

Here is the full conference schedule.

Rockford, Illinois and the free society

Good news comes in triplets.

I learned last week that Milton Friedman (Nobel Prize in Economics, 1976) received an honorary doctorate from Rockford College and was our commencement speaker in 1969.

Then I heard that Gordon Tullock (co-founder of Public Choice economics with James Buchanan, Nobel Prize in Economics, 1986) is a native of Rockford.

And I was charmed recently to find this bookplate in the Rockford College library’s copy of Richard Cobden’s Political Writings. Ronald Coase won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1991.
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Dare I suggest it: Rockford, Illinois — intellectual center of the free world?

An inspiring university points to the future

Atlas is not shrugging at Francisco Marroquín University in Guatemala.

I was there to give a talk on “Is Economics Value-Free?” [answer: No, and that's a good thing] at the Association for Private Enterprise Education conference. This sign made it feel like an intellectual homecoming [click the images for full size]:

The first academic building one comes to at the university has this sculpture and accompanying plaque:

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Thanks to co-hosts FMU and APEE for a memorable event. Thanks also to organizer Douglas Rasmussen and my co-sessionists Alexei Marcoux, Pierre Garello, and Aeon Skoble for a good discussion of a fundamental issue in philosophy of economics. (The 80-degree weather and heated, outdoor pool weren’t bad either.)

Update: Joshua Hall of Beloit College, by way of thanking FMU and its students for their co-hosting the conference, has this link for those who would like to make a donation to FMU’s student scholarship fund.

Pathologies of the mixed economy (or, How we got into this frackin’ mess)

Putting into one flowchart what I have learned from Adam Smith, Ayn Rand, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, James Buchanan, and Gordon Tullock.

The flowchart is in spreadsheet format: the short version and the long version in Excel 2007 or in Excel 97-2003. Update: DJ Dates has a cool, scalable Google maps version of the flowchart at his website.

Feel welcome to modify and add to as you wish.

I’m in the midst of discussing this material in my Business and Economic Ethics course, in a unit on business ethics in a mixed economy.

For reference purposes:

Academic title: “The Sociology of Dysfunctional Nonstandard Political-Economic Systems.”

Public Intellectual title: “The Evolution of the Mixed Economy.”

Casual title: “How We Got Into This Frackin’ Mess.”