Skip to content →

PPE morphs to PNE

Published August 30, 2011 by Emanuel Derman

The internecine arguments by economists in the daily papers show that a good part of economics is about

  • what is good; and
  • how to achieve it,

i.e. about philosophy and politics.  In British universities a major in Economics used to be part of PPE ? the triple concentration in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. Puts economics with the traditional moral ?sciences? of values.

The emerging paradigm in academic economics is PNE? Psychology, Neuroscience and Economics. Puts economics with the traditional value-free sciences.

But, if economics is about what?s good and how to get it, it can?t be value-free. Hence ?

Published in other