Worldly Philosophy: Studies at the Intersection of Philosophy and Economics – serie

Dramatic changes or revolutions in a field of science are often made by outsiders or 'trespassers,' who are not limited by the established, 'expert' approaches. Each essay in this diverse collection shows the fruits of intellectual trespassing and poaching among fields such as economics, Kantian ethics, Platonic philosophy, category theory, double-entry accounting, arbitrage, algebraic logic, series-parallel duality, and financial arithmetic.

In the 1990s a grass-roots movement has sprung up among ordinary people to fight regulatory actions taking away their rights to land. In this collection of new essays, twelve distinguished scholars of economics, law, and public affairs address the history and causes of this movement. They document and analyze Supreme Court decisions on regulatory takings, enforcement activities of the Corps of Engineers and EPA, and case studies involving takings under the Endangered Species Act.

Convinced that Ricardian concept of political economy, dominant among his contempories, was based on unscientific doctrines and dubious moral conclusions, William Whewell and his followers sought to transform scientific knowledge and to reform British education by applying mathematics to economics. James P. Henderson's comprehensive study argues that Whewell developed a strategy to challenge the growing dominance of the Ricardian paradigm by highlighting the errors in its deductive reasoning. Whewell's views on scientific methodology, moral philosophy, and educational doctrine influenced several generations of prominent mathematical economists, including Edward Rogers, Col. T. Perronet Thompson, John Edward Tozer, Sir John William Lubbock, and Dionysius Lardner. Along with Richard Jones, Whewell was instrumental in developing an inductive political economy based upon careful historical and statistical research. This study of Whewell's contributions to mathematical economics is important reading for students and scholars of economics and political economy.