Search results for " Pensiero"

Integrazione

2007

HARVARD MEETS THE CRISIS: THE MONETARY THEORY AND POLICY OF LAUCHLIN B. CURRIE, JACOB VINER, JOHN H. WILLIAMS, AND HARRY D. WHITE

2015

The paper discusses the interpretation of the Great Depression and the policy decision making by four Harvard economists: Lauchlin B. Currie, Jacob Viner, John H. Williams, and Harry D. White. All were eminent scholars in the field of monetary and international economics, and were deeply involved in policy decisions during the New Deal. We will discuss how their Harvard training provided them with a common methodological and analytical perspective, and how this common perspective translated into specific policies when they moved from the academia to public service in the US administration. Their interpretation of the causes of the Great Depression and their policy proposals show the eclecti…

Rational vs historical reconstructions. A note on Blaug

2003

The paper focuses on Blaug's distinction between rational and historical reconstruction within the historiography of economics. Blaug's distinction is shown to be sterile and misleading and his definitions of no avail to clear thinking. Historical reconstruction (as defined by Blaug) is en empty box for reasons which are basically theoretical and not simply practical (as Blaug seems to hold). Moreover, Blaug's primary polemical target is Whig historiography and not rational reconstruction: the two concepts coincide only by means of an ad hoc definition. Blaug's criticism does not apply to other uses of the concept of rational reconstruction such as that proposed by Lakatos.

AN ECONOMIC APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF LAW IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: GAETANO FILANGIERI AND LA SCIENZA DELLA LEGISLAZIONE

2011

This work presents the elements of economic analysis of law that occur in the thought of Gaetano Filangieri. In the pages of La Scienza della Legislazione the Neapolitan writer develops a utilitarian and economic investigation that pays attention to the judgments individuals make over social phenomena at the margin point. A proof of this development can be found in the explanation of the principle of decreasing marginal utility, argued in Head XXXI of Book III, which represents one of the most effective demonstrations that can be found before the end of nineteenth-century literature. The most remarkable fact is that, of all the five parts that compose the Filangierian work, the most rich in…

Sophus A. Reinert, The Academy of Fisticuffs: Political Economy and Commercial Society in Enlightenment Italy (Cambridge, London: Harvard University …

2020

HEREDITARIANISM, EUGENICS, AND AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE IN THE INTERWAR YEARS: MEET THE CARVERIANS

2022

Like other Progressive Era reformers, Thomas Nixon Carver promoted a form of biology-infused social science that included both eugenics and a strong version of hereditarianism. Carver was also a charismatic teacher who trained several generations of economists and sociologists at Harvard. In this paper we will focus on the contribution of three of them: James A. Field, Norman E. Himes, and Carl S. Joslyn. These authors differ in terms of style, method, and emphasis—with Field and Himes more interested in population and birth control issues, and Joslyn in the dynamics of social stratification. As it will be shown below, however, all of them reveal an explicit commitment to hereditarianism an…

ECONOMIA POLITICA. UN'INTRODUZIONE STORICA

2009

Saggio interpretativo sulla storia del pensiero economico

Filosofie del linguaggio. Storie, autori, concetti.

2016

Il linguaggio è il fatto più complesso della vita umana. Per comprenderlo occorre una molteplicità di prospettive, tutte necessarie, nessuna autosufficiente. Oggigiorno il suo studio è affidato a linguisti, neurologi, biologi e studiosi dell'evoluzione. Finalmente — si dice — il linguaggio è esaminato in modo scientifico. Eppure quando uno scienziato lo definisce, ad esempio, come un "sistema di comunicazione", in realtà si basa su un presupposto filosofico implicito di cui forse non si rende conto. Per comprendere l'oggetto "linguaggio" è allora necessario sia uno studio scientifico sia una riflessione filosofica sella storia dell’idea di linguaggio. Filosofia del linguaggio e storia della…

Franco Modigliani e l’Unione Monetaria Europea

2020

This essay examines Franco Modigliani's contribution to the debate on European monetary integration, from the seventies to the early 2000s as emerging from his articles published mainly on the newspapers of the time and on professional journals. From the debate around the European monetary system to the creation of the single currency, Modigliani generally stood for the integration process and sought to encourage Italian politicians to engage in macroeconomic stabilization processes and to take an active part in the formulation and management of European agreements. At the same time, Modigliani criticized the overly rigid approaches supported by other European countries, in particular Germa…

Eugenics and American Economics in the Interwar Years: The Case of Thomas Nixon Carver

2017

The aim of this paper is to explore in some detail Carver’s eugenic ideas with a main, albeit non-exclusive, focus on the interwar years. Although his major contributions had all appeared prior to 1918, Carver remained particularly productive throughout the 1920s and 1930s, publishing several articles and eight books, which include The Principles of National Economy (1921), and The Essential Factors of Social Evolution (1935)—two works which contain significant traces of eugenic reasoning. Just as important, Carver’s interwar activities were not limited to academia. After his retirement from Harvard in 1932 he became involved in the activities of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, while i…