Struggling over the Soul of Economics: Objectivity versus Expertise

Reiss, Julian

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-08551-7_7

Struggling over the Soul of Economics: Objectivity versus Expertise

Reiss, Julian

Authors

Julian Reiss

Contributors

Marcel Boumans
Editor

Carlo Martini
Editor

Abstract

The topics of this chapter are the notion of objectivity and the role for experts in economics. It will argue that core methodological debates are at heart debates about the notion of objectivity and about how objective a science economics can and should be. It will then introduce an alternative notion and show that for economics to be objective in the new sense, expert judgments are likely to play a much more prominent role than they currently do (or, more precisely, ought to do following the traditional ideal). It is quite obvious, however, that making expert judgments more prominent alone won’t suffice. The right kind of expert judgment is needed. The chapter will therefore end with some thoughts about what a better economic expertise might look like.

Citation

Reiss, J. (2014). Struggling over the Soul of Economics: Objectivity versus Expertise. In M. Boumans, & C. Martini (Eds.), Experts and consensus in social science (131-152). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08551-7_7

Acceptance Date	Nov 30, 2013
Online Publication Date	Jun 16, 2014
Publication Date	Jun 16, 2014
Deposit Date	Sep 17, 2013
Publisher	Springer Verlag
Pages	131-152
Series Title	Ethical economy : studies in economic ethics and philosophy
Book Title	Experts and consensus in social science.
Chapter Number	7
ISBN	9783319085500
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08551-7_7