The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Economics

Conrad Heilmann is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Erasmus School of Philosophy, Co-Director of the Erasmus Institute for Philosophy and Economics (EIPE), and Core Faculty of the Erasmus Initiative "Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity" at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He works on choice, fairness, finance, and other topics in the philosophy of economics. Julian Reiss is Professor of Philosophy at Johannes Kepler University Linz and Head of the Institute of Philosophy and Scientific Method. He is the author of Causation, Evidence, and Inference (Routledge, 2015), Philosophy of Economics: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge, 2013), Error in Economics: Towards a More Evidence-Based Methodology (Routledge, 2008; Erasmus Philosophy International Research Prize), and more than sixty papers in leading philosophy and social science journals and edited collections.

Part I. Foundations of Economics











Should economics give up rational choice theory?







Should behavioural economics be adopted as central method in microeconomics?







Should neuroeconomics be adopted as central method in microeconomics?







Is hyperbolic time discounting irrational?







Has game theory been refuted?







Should classical game theory be replaced by epistemic game theory?



Part II. Methodology of Economics









What kind of account of measurement is needed for economics?







Are mechanisms the best account to deal with economic explanation?







Do we need theory for econometrics?







Should economics give up significance tests?







Is realism the best standard for economic models?







Should economic policy be evidence-based?







What should be the role of case studies in empirical research?



Part III. Ethical Aspects of Economics









Should economists discuss the ethical base of their discipline more explicitly?







What limits should markets have?







Do markets make us better people?







Should economics turn capabilitarian?







What can economists contribute to theories of justice?







Should economists embrace happiness?


20. Are Nudge policies dangerous?