Course Title Economic Philosophy and Reasoning

Programme Title BA in Economics

Mode M1 Level L3
Course ID
Course Type Elective Semester 5
Credits 3 Academic Year 2019-2020
Version 2.0
Course Development Team Rahul De
Course Instructor(s) Rahul De

RATIONALE

The Economics Philosophy and Reasoning course is an elective course for 3rd year economics major
and minor students. This course is meant to provide a broad perspective on ‘economics’ as an object
of knowledge. It is a final year (level 3) course, and requires students to be comfortable with economic
concepts from different paradigms. It fulfils the programmatic requirement of making students
philosophically grounded. This course is meant to give students a deeper understanding of the
discipline of economics and improve their economic reasoning and explaining skills.
This course starts with the question of ‘What is Economics’ and gets the students to reflect on three
sets of connected abstract questions. What is the nature of the object of study of economics? What
constitutes work in economics? And what is economics relationship to other disciplines? Each of
these questions introduce students to a method of philosophical enquiry namely Ethics, Ontology and
Methodology and provides a comprehensive understanding of the discipline of economics, its limits
and possibilities.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

On successful completion of the course, the student will

Learning Objective 1 (Understanding – Meta cognitive):

Develop philosophical reasoning through reflection on abstract questions mediated by critical
readings.

Learning Objective 2 (Procedural - Application):

Apply methods of philosophical enquiry to create a broader understanding of specific economic
concepts. The method of inquiry includes clarifying, making distinctions, raising objections, exploring
assumptions and evaluating from perspectives of others.

Learning Objective 3 (Evaluate – Meta cognitive):

The ability to articulate and evaluate competing philosophical arguments about economic phenomena.

Learning Objective 4 (Create – Meta cognitive):

Create a philosophically reasoned argument on an abstract question about economics (Some ideas for
projects are listed in the reading list). Evaluate the argument in terms of the rigor of its logic and the
plausibility of its premises (i.e., in terms of validity and soundness). Develop and effectively present a
counterargument, taking into account other academic perspectives.

PEDAGOGY

This class will largely be driven by dialogue between students, peers and faculty. Classes will revolve
around discussing a philosophical question listed along-side the readings. Students will use readings,
their own knowledge of economics and methods of philosophical enquiry to reflect on these
questions. Students will discuss these question in small groups and then it will be opened up for
dialogue in the larger class. Student assignments will get individuals to reflect on these class
discussions. Assessments will focus on getting students to reason about and summarise class
discussion. Assessments will not focus on summarising readings as readings are seen as
guides for students to think through abstract questions. The focus of the pedagogy is to get
students to think autonomously and be reflexive about the process of breaking down abstract
questions.
Students will develop their own economic philosophy project over the semester, which will be
translated into a class presentation and a written draft. They will engage with this project through the
semester applying the methods/concepts they have picked up through the classes.

ASSESMENT AND GRADING

This is a discussion-oriented course. The classes will include lectures, discussion, student
presentations and activities. There will be an assessment every 3-4 weeks. Each assignment will be
based around applying a concept learnt in class to a concept learnt in the economic program. In-
class tests will be based around class discussions. The capstone project will be the main assessment
of the course and will be assessed in three parts: presentation, peer feedback on first draft and final
draft.
 Tentative Schedule of Assessment
Assessment Weightage Due Date
Short response/quiz 1 10 13 Aug
Short response/quiz 2 10 27 Aug
In class test 1 20 20 Sep
Short response/quiz 3 10 To be decided
Short response/quiz 4 10 12 November
Class Presentation 10 22 - 24 October
In class Test 2 20 22 Nov
Class Participation 10 End of semester
Total 100

Grade Conversion

Grade Percentage
O 90 and above
A 85 – 89.5
A- 80 – 84.5
B 75 – 79.5
C 65-74.5
D 50 – 64.5
E 40 – 49.5
U > 40
I Attempted less than 70%
assessment

SYLLABUS AND READINGS

All readings will be uploaded on moodle

INTRODUCTION TO COURSE
This unit will explore why philosophy of economics is a subject worth studying and explain
its various branches and introduce rules about reasoning and argumentation

ARGUMENTATION AND REASONING

How to identify, construct, evaluate and Complete an argument

Armstrong, Walter Sinnott (2018): Think Again: How to Reason and Argue
Chapter 6: How to Spot Arguments
Chapter 8: How to Complete Arguments
 Chapter 9: How to evaluate arguments
WHY STUDY ETHICS

Thompson, Mel (2018), Ethics for Life: Making Sense of the Morals of Everyday Living,
London: John Murray Learning
Chapter 1: Free to Choose
Reiss, Julian (2013), “The Why, What and How of Philosophy of Economics”, The Philosophy of
Economics: A contemporary Introduction, pp 1-12.

MORAL THEORIES
Thompson, Mel (2018), Ethics for Life: Making Sense of the Morals of Everyday Living,
London: John Murray Learning
Justifying Moral Arguments
Based on Natural Law:
Chapter 4: Is it Natural?
How do we decide what is natural
Based on external circumstances
Chapter 5: Looking For Results
Hedonism, Consequentalism and utilitarianism
Based on Internal Imperative:
Chapter 6: The Experience of Moral choice

APPLIED ETHICS
Thompson, Mel (2018), Ethics for Life: Making Sense of the Morals of Everyday Living,
London: John Murray Learning
Chapter 8: Law and Order
Applying moral theories to collective issues

Chapter 9: Fairness and Equality

Applying moral theories to questions of justice and equality

ECONOMICS AND APPLIED ETHICS

This section will apply philosophical methods to analyse major economic concepts

Introduction to normative economics: Basic concepts

Beckerman, Wilfred (2017), “Economics as Applied Ethics”
Chapter 3: Main concepts

Individual Choice and Rationality

Chapter 4: Fact and value in personal choice
Chapter 5: How to make ‘Bad’ choices
Utility and its constraints
Chapter 9: Utilitarianism: The search for an over riding value
Chapter 10: Utilitarianism and its constraints

Markets and their Moral Limits

Sandel, Michael ( 2012), “ What Money can’t buy: The Moral Limits of Markets”

Welfare

Dowding, Keith (2009), “What is welfare and How can we measure it” in the Oxford Handbook of
Philosophy of Economics, pp 511 – 539

Justice

Chapter 17: The Boundary in Space: International Justice

Equality:

Chapter 16: Equality of What?