Master
Economics as a Social Science
By
Piet Keizer
Utrecht School of Economics Utrecht University July 2008
1
Content 1. The Character of Modern Science 2. Genesis and Development of Economics as a Social Science 3. Multidisciplinary Economics, an Introduction 4. Some Basic Sociology for Economists 5. Appendix Answers to test questions
2
Preface
This reader is an attempt to define economics as a social science. In the first place, economics is a science. In the second place, economics is a social science. In the third place, economics has a typical function in the whole of sciences. The practical problem of poverty – more theoretically: of scarcity – is the typical economic problem. People are motivated to reduce it as much as possible. However, the way people solve their economic problems is highly interrelated with the way they solve the two other primary human problems. These other problems are the social problem, as studied by sociology, and the psychic problem, as studied by psychology. Of course humans have many sorts of problems, but they can be derived from the three primary ones. In this reader some attention is also paid to the moral and the political problem, both derived from the primary motives. In chapter 1 we discuss the question what we mean by science. The term has high status, and it is very important to understand the procedures leading to the label ‘scientific’. In chapter 2 we sketch the way social science was developed from moral and political philosophy. The history of the methodology – the way knowledge is constructed - as applied by social science, is at the centre of this story. In chapter 3 the interrelationship between the three primary human motives and the partial analyses that are based on them, is discussed. Orthodox economics is presented as the analysis of the typical economic motivation or force, isolated from the operation of the two other primary motivations or forces. Multidisciplinary economics is presented as
By
Piet Keizer
Utrecht School of Economics Utrecht University July 2008
1
Content 1. The Character of Modern Science 2. Genesis and Development of Economics as a Social Science 3. Multidisciplinary Economics, an Introduction 4. Some Basic Sociology for Economists 5. Appendix Answers to test questions
2
Preface
This reader is an attempt to define economics as a social science. In the first place, economics is a science. In the second place, economics is a social science. In the third place, economics has a typical function in the whole of sciences. The practical problem of poverty – more theoretically: of scarcity – is the typical economic problem. People are motivated to reduce it as much as possible. However, the way people solve their economic problems is highly interrelated with the way they solve the two other primary human problems. These other problems are the social problem, as studied by sociology, and the psychic problem, as studied by psychology. Of course humans have many sorts of problems, but they can be derived from the three primary ones. In this reader some attention is also paid to the moral and the political problem, both derived from the primary motives. In chapter 1 we discuss the question what we mean by science. The term has high status, and it is very important to understand the procedures leading to the label ‘scientific’. In chapter 2 we sketch the way social science was developed from moral and political philosophy. The history of the methodology – the way knowledge is constructed - as applied by social science, is at the centre of this story. In chapter 3 the interrelationship between the three primary human motives and the partial analyses that are based on them, is discussed. Orthodox economics is presented as the analysis of the typical economic motivation or force, isolated from the operation of the two other primary motivations or forces. Multidisciplinary economics is presented as
References: 7 See: J.Locke, Essay concerning Human Understanding, 1691 10 Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759 13 14 R.Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population, 1798 L. Robbins, On the Nature and Significance of Economic Science, London, 1932.