Tiago Cardão-Pito - Academic discipline of economics as hedonist philosophy

jpe:8668 - Journal of Philosophical Economics, November 20, 2021, Volume XIV Issue 1-2 - https://doi.org/10.46298/jpe.8668
Academic discipline of economics as hedonist philosophyArticle

Authors: Tiago Cardão-Pito ORCID1

  • 1 Universidade de Lisboa = University of Lisbon

Contemporary mainstream economics cannot be seen as disconnected from philosophical concerns. On the contrary, it should be understood as a defence for a specific philosophy, namely, crude quantitative hedonism where money would measure pleasure and pain. Disguised among a great mathematical apparatus involving utility functions, supply, and demand, lies a specific hedonist philosophy that every year is lectured to thousands of economic and business students around the world. This hedonist philosophy is much less sophisticated than that in ancient hedonist philosophers as Epicurus or Lucretius. Furthermore, it does not solve any of the systematic difficulties regularly faced by hedonist philosophy. However, the argument that economics is detached from philosophy works as a rhetorical artifice to protect its dominant underlying philosophy: Philosophical disputes would have to be addressed within the biased mathematical apparatus of quantitative hedonism. Economists and business students must learn to identify the underlying philosophy in mainstream economics and alternative philosophical systems.


Volume: Volume XIV Issue 1-2
Section: Symposium: How economists are taught philosophy: pedagogical and self-referential reflections about the role of philosophy in an economist's work
Published on: November 20, 2021
Imported on: November 20, 2021
Keywords: quantitative hedonism,hedonism,qualitative hedonism,rhetorical artifice,hedonist economic theory,utilitarianism,labour based economic theory,[SHS.ECO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Economics and Finance,[SHS.PHIL]Humanities and Social Sciences/Philosophy
Funding:
    Source : OpenAIRE Graph
  • CSG - Research in Social Sciences and Management; Funder: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.; Code: UIDB/04521/2020

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