Economics

business economics

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philosophy and critical thinking

Discussing articles by Alan Turing, Gilbert Ryle, Thomas Nagel, John Searle, and Dan Dennett.

This is a 31-minute preview of our vintage 2 hr, 20-minute episode which you can buy at partiallyexaminedlife.com/store or get for free with PEL Citizenship (see partiallyexaminedlife.com/membership). You can also purchase the full episode in the iTunes Store: Search for “Partially Examined Turing” and look under “Albums.”

What is this mind stuff, and how can it “be” the brain? Can computers think? No? What if they’re really sexified? Then can they think? Can the mind be a computer? Can it be a room with a guy in it that doesn’t speak Chinese? Can science completely understand it? …The mind, that is, not the room, or Chinese. What is it like to be a bat? What about a weevil? Do you even know what a weevil is, really? Then how do you know it’s not a mind? Hmmmm? Is guest podcaster Marco Wise a robot? Even his wife cannot be sure!

We introduce the mind/body problem and the wackiness that it engenders by breezing through several articles, which you may read along with us:

1. Alan Turing’s 1950 paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.”

2. A chapter of Gilbert Ryle’s 1949 book The Concept of Mind called “Descartes’ Myth.”

3. Thomas Nagel’s 1974 essay “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?”

4. John Searle’s Chinese Room argument, discussed in a 1980 piece, “Minds, Brains and Programs.”

5. Daniel C. Dennett’s “Quining Qualia."

Buy the full episode

Preview - Philosophy of Mind - Partially Examined Life

“A rising tide lifts all boats.” That may be true on the oceans, but it’s not always the case when it comes to economic growth. But, countries can choose to pursue economic policies that will benefit all—rich and poor alike.

We All Need to Benefit from Economic Growth

Speaker(s): Paul Donovan, George Magnus | Come along to an economics debate to help you consider what will happen next in Europe. Paul Donovan is managing director of global economics at UBS. George Magnus is senior economic advisor at UBS. Thu, 6 Feb 2014 18:30:00 GMT

Should the Euro Survive? Economics in an Era of Political Extremism [Audio]

Speaker(s): Farmida Bi, Paul Mills | Organised in conjunction with the Harvard Islamic Finance Project, Farmida Bi talks on Islamic finance in the Western world. Farmida Bi is partner and European head of Islamic Finance, Norton Rose Fulbright LLP. Dr Paul Mills is senior economist at International Monetary Finance, London. Wed, 12 Feb 2014 18:30:00 GMT

Risk Sharing and Cooperative Finance [Audio]

Speaker(s): Dr Philip Roscoe | Could economics be responsible for the greatest problems we face? This lecture explores the making of the economic world and asks: does economics change what it means to be a person? Philip Roscoe (@Philip_Roscoe) is reader in management at the School of Management, University of St Andrews. He is interested in markets and organizing, and has published and lectured on such topics as online dating, organ transplants, non-professional investors and alternative currencies. Philip holds a PhD in management from Lancaster University, an MPhil in medieval Arabic thought from the University of Oxford, and a BA in theology from the University of Leeds. Between studies, he has worked as a financial journalist and tried his hand at running a small business. In 2011 he was one of the ten winners of the inaugural AHRC BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinkers scheme chosen from over a thousand applicants. His new book is I Spend therefore I Am: The True Cost of Economics. Tue, 11 Feb 2014 18:30:00 GMT

Economics, the Enemy? [Audio]

Economists use models to try to make sense of economic trends and shape policies. But, since the financial meltdown of 2008, many have criticized what they see as an overreliance on these models which failed to predict the crisis. The former President of the European Central Bank suggests ways these models might be improved.

The Limits of Economics

Speaker(s): Dr Ethan Ilzetzki | This talk discusses what is known about the effects of austerity and fiscal stimulus on economic activity. Ethan Ilzetzki is an economics lecturer at LSE. His research focuses on the effects of fiscal policy and the role of politics in shaping fiscal policy. Wed, 26 Feb 2014 18:30:00 GMT

Fiscal Policy During Recessions and Recoveries [Audio]

Professor Henrietta Moore is William Wyse Chair of Social Anthropology and is the Chair and co-founder of SHM Productions Ltd, a strategy and insight consultancy based in central London. She is co-editor of Global Civil Society 2012: Ten Years of Critical Reflection.

The future of civic activism

On P.F. Strawson’s “Freedom and Resentment” (1960), Galen Strawson’s “The Impossibility of Moral Responsibility” (1994), and Gary Watson’s “Responsibility and the Limits of Evil: Variations on a Strawsonian Theme” (1987).

Do we ordinarily act with the right kind of freedom so that blame is justified? Galen Strawson says no: our choices stem from our character, which is not something we chose (or if we did choose a path to having that character, that prior choice wasn’t the result of another choice, etc.). Galen’s father P.F. Strawson said that blame and resentment are essential parts of our social attitudes and aren’t really open to philosophical critique, no matter what you think about determinism.

Mark, Wes, and Seth are joined by Tamler Sommers of the U. of Houston and Very Bad Wizards podcast, who tries to convince us that ole’ P.F. was right. Well Pffff to that!

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Strawson on Free Will - Partially Examined Life

Economists are often criticized for viewing the world through the lens of costs and benefits, while ignoring the morality of an economic decision. But, while economics can’t answer moral questions, it can inform the debate, says one expert.

Timothy Taylor: How Economics Can Inform Moral Decisions

Leading international economist Gerard Lyons spent nearly thirty years working in the City and is now Chief Economic Advisor to the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. In 2010 and 2011 Bloomberg ranked him the number one global forecaster out of 400 leading economists, so his views on where we are heading economically are worth listening to. In his new book The Consolations of Economics he lays out his roadmap for an optimistic future. Hear what he has to say in a Faber Podcast recorded at City Hall, with the skyscrapers of the City the ideal backdrop.

Gerard Lyons: The Consolations of Economics

Lama Michel Rinpoche introduces the three vehicles of Buddhism: the Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana paths and the four Indian philosophical schools: the Vaibhasika, Sauntrantika, Cittamattra, and Madyamika (Svatantrika and Prasangika). This lesson is part of a course on the fundamentals of Buddhist philosophy: Siddhanta Druptha and is available also in Italian.

Buddhist Philosophy: The Three Vehicles and Four Schools, Lama Michel Rinpoche - April 2013, AHMC

The work of master economist John Maynard Keynes has been key in the resolution of successive crises from the Great Depression to the recent global financial crisis. An IMF economist gives an overview of the man, his ideas and their impact on economic policy.

The Long Life of Keynesian Economics

Private investment is down in India, partly due to the lack of coal and electricity. India's new chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian says removing those bottlenecks is key to increasing growth. 

Arvind Subramanian, on Boosting India's Private Sector

As Uganda’s economy continues to grow, so does the need for more efficient ways of managing large development projects. The country’s finance minister says the objectives of each program must be clear, for capacity building to be effective.

Uganda-Capacity Building for Growth

Labor market flexibility is considered by many to be essential to an efficient market economy.  But a top-level official of the ILO says there’s been an excessive focus on worker flexibility.  Off the back of an IMF/World Bank seminar, she explained how economic growth can be nurtured to benefit all. 

Stop Squeezing Workers, and Step Up Investment, says ILO

Data has gained prominence as a vital building block for making sound policy. IMF Director of Statistics, Louis Marc Ducharme talks about how the IMF is helping make data more widely available to policy makers.


Data Drives Better Decisions

Ha-Joon Chang talks about his latest book Economics: A User's Guide, which questions the idea that economics is a science and addresses the failures in economics thinking that he says led to our current predicament. Ha-Joon Chang teaches economics at Cambridge University. His book 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism was a number one bestseller and was called by the Observer "a witty and timely debunking of some of the biggest myths surrounding the global economy". He is a popular columnist at the Guardian, and a vocal critic of the failures of our economic system. - See more at: http://www.festivalofideas.cam.ac.uk/events/fully-booked-economics-users-guide#sthash.tOMqZoaV.dpuf

Economics: a user's guide

Speaker(s): Professor Baroness O’Neill, Professor Jonathan Wolff | Informed consent is not the most fundamental ethical standard, but a means of securing respect for other, more basic standards or aims. It is neither possible nor required when public goods – such as sound currency or clean air – are to be provided. Where it is possible and can be required, as in transactions with individuals, it must be tailored to their cognitive capacities. Genuine, legitimating consent is demanding, and is not achieved by the ‘tick and click’ approaches used in many commercial transactions. Onora O’Neill is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, a crossbench member of the House of Lords and the current chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Jonathan Wolff is Professor of Philosophy at University College London. Peter Dennis is an LSE Fellow in the department of Philosophy at LSE. The Forum for European Philosophy (@LSEPhilosophy) is an educational charity which organises and runs a full and varied programme of philosophy and interdisciplinary events in the UK. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production), LSE AV Services (Audio Recording).

On Informed Consent [Audio]

A nation's poverty or prosperity may have as much to do with politics as economics, says Daron Acemoglu.  He argues that more democratic countries with inclusive political institutions create sustained prosperity, while “extractive,” authoritarian regimes lead toward poverty.

Good Institutions Essential to Growth, says Acemoglu

Africa Sustains Growth Despite Global Uncertainty

Globally, over 200 million people are unemployed, according to the IMF.  Many European markets and emerging markets are suffering double-digit jobless rates, and youth and long-term unemployment are at alarming levels.  What skills then do job seekers in a global labor market need to succeed?

Getting the World Back to Work

In the second part of our series on social safety nets in sub-Saharan Africa, we look at practice on the ground. In Burkina Faso, the IMF is working with the government to develop targeted welfare programs. The aim is to identify and help the most vulnerable. But it is still a work-in-progress.

Social Safety Nets at Work: the Case of Burkina Faso

Philosophy of Nature

Listen to IMF economists and other experts discuss key economic and financial issues of the day.

Timothy Taylor: How Economics Can Inform Moral Decisions

IMF Podcasts