Scientific theories and common life

Reading Group. Scientific theories and common life: The Great Divide in the history of modern thought

The aim of this reading group is to study the origins and development of scientific theory from a historical and evolutionary perspective. From this approach we intend to inquire into the need and limits of conventional scientific boundaries and the relationship between scientific theories and common life.

We expect this project to give us the opportunity to: a) Contact YSI members interested in studying the history of science; b) Contact "non-economist" scholars from other institutions who can enrich YSI research; c) Broaden the intellectual and conceptual horizons of economic thinking.

First Reading Session. The pure economic theory. Its nature, its scope and its limits April 29, 2020, 11:30 (Timezone: America/Buenos_Aires)

The first reading session is dedicated to discussing the concept of "pure economic theory". We have chosen some eloquent quotes about pure economic theory from well-known economists of the history of economic thought (Menger, Walras, Schumpeter, Sraffa) and of the history of philosophy (Ernst Cassirer).
(available at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wIOYGJfIIZ606rwXtd02RQmuxuWIa3JFzAKgO1_8myw/edit?usp=sharing)

We are interested in posing and discussing these questions:

• What did these thinkers think about:

  • the scope and limits of pure economic theory?
  • the relationship between pure economic theory and common life?
  • the relationship between pure economic theory and the concept of State?
  • the subject matter of economic theory?
  • the relationship between pure economic theory and pure theories developed by “natural sciences”?

• What dimensions of the concept of pure economic theory were not sufficiently explored by these authors?

Second Reading Session. Conceptual and historical relations between science and philosophy May 6, 2020, 11:30 (Timezone: America/Buenos_Aires)

During the second reading session we will continue discussing the compendium of eloquent quotes about pure economic theory (available at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wIOYGJfIIZ606rwXtd02RQmuxuWIa3JFzAKgO1_8myw/edit?usp=sharing), as well as the Introduction of Edward Skidelsky´s book Ernst Cassirer: The last philosopher of culture (available here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nH4DQP2p4fxOmQs1ZdSTb_bjvSAswmzf).

We are interested in posing and discussing the following questions:

What did Skidelsky thought about:

• The historical and conceptual limits of the philosophy of enlightenment and of its main aspirations (conceiving in an integrative way spiritual perfection, universal knowledge and universal democracy)
• The relation between those limits and a) the emergence of "the two cultures"; b) the emergence of totalitarianisms
• The historical and conceptual limits of Cassirer’s attempt to reunite the two Cultures within a philosophy of culture

Third Reading Session. The intellectual history of corporation: May 13, 2020, 11:30 (Timezone: America/Buenos_Aires)

We will discuss The Corporation in History, by Phillip Stern. For this, we are interested in discussing the following questions:

• What are some aspects of the changing relationship between corporations and the state in any of the periods that Stern discusses?
• How have different legal traditions influenced the development of the corporation? Where geographically were these centers of legal thought? How might this history look different if other regions were considered?
• What are some of the connections between corporations and the spread of European empire?
• Has the nature of the corporation changed fundamentally in the last, say, 200 years? Whether it has or it has not, what is the use of historical investigations such as this?