Harbecke, Jens and Knudsen, Richard Supervenient Causes in Economics. UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

This paper investigates whether the philosophical supervenience problem has any bearing on the economic sciences. It first reconstructs some examples of economics normal science that aim at a correct description and explanation of causes of observable phenomena in an economic reference system. Subsequently, the supervenience problem is presented as it is known from the philosophy of biology and the philosophy of mind. A formulation of the problem for economic causes is then developed in an analogous way, even though the ontological commitments of economics are less obvious. The main hypotheses defended in this paper are the following ones: (i) Economic models are amenable to causal interpretations and (ii) the efficacy of economic causes characterized by such models is fundamentally problematic from a metaphysical point of view, analogously to that of biological and mental causes. Moreover, it is shown that (iii) the problem of causal exclusion is even more drastic for economic causes than for biological or mental causes due to a non-localizability and an overlap of economic events.

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Item Type:	Other
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Harbecke, Jens jens.harbecke@uni-wh.de 0000-0002-1124-3302 Knudsen, Richard richard.knudsen@uni-wh.de
Keywords:	Economic Causes; Causal Exclusion; Supervenience
Subjects:	General Issues > Causation Specific Sciences > Economics General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Depositing User:	Prof. Dr. Jens Harbecke
Date Deposited:	19 Oct 2024 13:50
Last Modified:	19 Oct 2024 13:50
Item ID:	24083
Subjects:	General Issues > Causation Specific Sciences > Economics General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/24083

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