Wicksell’s theory of capital (1893)

Named after Swedish economist Knut Wicksell (1851-1926), Wicksell’s theory of capital examines factor prices as derived from the value of the marginal product. Wicksell pointed out that in an equilibrium situation, the interest rate would exceed the value of the marginal product of capital because the aggregate stock of capital would be revalued due to changes in

1 Comments

William J. Baumol

American economist. Developed contestable markets theory. Major works of William J. Baumol – Community Indifference, 1946, RES – A Community Indifference Map: A construction, 1949, RES – A Formalization of Mr. Harrod’s Model, 1949, EJ – The Analogy between Producer and Consumer Equilibrium Analysis, with Helen Makower, 1950, Economica – Economic Dynamics, with R. Turvey,

2 Comments

Sir William Petty

When Oliver Cromwell’s British forces invaded Ireland in the 1650s, a slight problem emerged: how to partition the spoils among the victors or, more precisely, what were the spoils? The task of surveying Ireland and assessing its riches was given to a physician which had accompanied the British army, Sir William Petty. Thus, the

3 Comments

X-efficiency (1966)

Formulated by American economist HARVEY LEIBENSTEIN (1922-1993), x-efficiency describes the general efficiency of a firm (judged on managerial and technological criteria) in transforming inputs at minimum cost into maximum profits. Also see: theory of the firm, managerial theories of the firm, satisficing, agency theory, scalar principle, parkinson’s law Source: H Leibenstein, ‘Allocative Efficiency vs “X-efficiency”‘, American Economic Review,

2 Comments

Theory of relevant alternatives

Theory used in defending fallibilism against the charge that it leads to skepticism. Where P and Q are propositions, P counts for this purpose as an alternative to Q if it is inconsistent with Q, and counts as a relevant alternative if to know that Q we must also know that not-P. Variant formulations exist, but the

2 Comments

Relativism

Strictly, any doctrine that something exists, has a property, or obtains, relative to something else. Two forms of relativism have been common, cognitive and moral; both of them are different from subjectivism, though some versions are also subjectivist. Cognitive relativism may say that all beliefs are true, or true for their holders (the view Plato attributes to Protagoras in

1 Comments

Reinhold Niebuhr

Ideas – The nature of the human being is flawed in its inclination to pride and power, but it exists in freedom under the shadow of God, is endowed with moral capacity, and in individual terms, can approach the ideal of Christian love. – God acts in history but is also hidden from history

1 Comments

Alfred North Whitehead

Ideas – The basic concrete entities are not enduring subsstances, but events (later: ‘ actual entities’ or ‘actual occasions’) related by their space-time relations and exemplifying their qualitative and mathematical patterns (later: ‘eternal objects’). – Time is differentiated from space by the acts of inheriting patterns from the past (later: ‘causal prehensions’). – Enduring

1 Comments

Altruism

In popular speech, a willingness to sacrifice one’s own interests for those of others. It is this sense that is relevant to discussions of, for example, the evolutionary origins and role of altruism in animals. Philosophically, altruism is rather a view about what one ought to do, and contrasts with egoism and universalism. It is a form

1 Comments

Anthroposophy (19TH-20TH CENTURIES)

The teachings of the German occult philosopher Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), derived from an ancient Greek phrase meaning ‘wisdom about man’. Steiner held that the development of man’s spiritual awareness was of paramount importance. He attempted to treat the investigation of spirituality as a ‘scientific’ study, and based much of his research upon his central contention that

1 Comments

Antinomianism (19TH-20TH CENTURIES)

View of certain Christians that the duties of a Christian are not to be circumscribed by obedience to a moral law or set of laws. More widely, the view that justification is by faith rather than by obedience to such laws. More widely still, any view that seeks to justify the actions of certain

1 Comments

Anti-realism

A view, primarily associated with the Oxford logician Michael AE Dummett (1925- ), which insists that we can only understand a statement if we understand under what circumstances someone who asserted it would say something true, and that we can only understand this if we could manifest our understanding, at least in principle, by asserting it

2 Comments

Apriorism

Apart from its popular meaning of dogmatism, apriorism is an alternative – though less common – term for rationalism in its philosophical senses; that is the views that there are a priori concepts, or substantive a priori truths, or both. English Alternative forms a priorism Etymology From a priori +‎ -ism, after French apriorisme. Noun apriorism (countable and uncountable, plural apriorisms) (philosophy) The idea that some knowledge

2 Comments

Archimedes

Ideas – Convergence methods, in which a curvilinear figure is bounded inside and out by similar rectilinear figures, can approximate the area of the curved figure to any degree of accuracy: Using convergence methods, the value of pi is found to be greater than 3 10/71 and less than 3 1/7. – Objects have

2 Comments

Aristotle

Ideas – Ideas do not have an independent, extra-mental subsistence, but exist in things. – The material substratum, which is the potential for the existence of finite things, must be distinguished from absolute nonbeing or privation. – The substances of things are a union of form and matter. – Body and soul are conjoined

7 Comments

Aristotle’s four causes

Theory derived from the work of Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC). ‘Cause’ is a misleading, but traditional, translation of a word meaning ‘factor responsible’, or perhaps ‘explanatory factor’. The ‘four causes’ provide answers to four questions one might ask about something, for example, a man: ‘What is it made from?’ ‘Flesh and so on’ (material cause);

1 Comments

Arthur Schopenhauer

Ideas – The world is nothing but the product of our perception and reason and exists only through and for the perceiving subject. – Reality is in itself nothing but will (an aimless energy), and will is known only as idea (representation), the objectivity of the will. – The body is the will objectified.

2 Comments

Associationism

A doctrine developed primarily by the Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) and the English psychologist David Hartley (1705-1757). (Psychology and philosophy of mind were not then distinguished, but Hartley offered a physiological basis for what in Hume was a purely mentalistic doctrine.) Ideas, regarded rather as sensations or as mental images, were associated in the mind according to

1 Comments

Attitude theories

In effect another name for speech act theories; though, strictly speaking, attitude theories analyze the meaning of certain words or sentences in terms of the expression of attitudes rather than the performing of various other acts that one can perform by speaking, such as prescribing or denying. The name therefore applies to emotivism more happily than to,

1 Comments

Baruch (or Benedict) Spinoza

Ideas – There can be only one infinite, dovone substance, comprising all of reality. – Infinite substance must have an infinity of attributes. – God and nature (understood as substance) are identical inasmuch as God is infinite. – Substance is self-caused and depends on nothing other than itself, whether for its existence or for

1 Comments