ECON BC3063: Senior Seminar

Critique of Economic Reason

Instructor: Prof. Sanjay Reddy, Fall 2002

1. Course Description:

We examine the foundations of the discipline of economics from the point of view of four questions:

(1) Is the economic understanding of human behavior descriptively accurate and prescriptively sound?

(2) Is economics a 'science' in any sense, and does it matter?

(3) Are ethical judgments indispensable in economics, and if so, how do
and should they enter?

(4) What is the actual and the proper relationship between economics and other traditions of social enquiry?

2. Course Requirements:

The requirements for the course are at least one class presentation on a week's readings (to be accompanied by a 5 page critical essay on the readings to be distributed to the other students), at least one week's participation as the discussant for another student's presentation, and a final research paper on a topic to be chosen by the student in conjunction with the instructor (indicative length of 15-20 pages), which must also be presented to the class. Forty percent of the course grade will be made up by the final research paper, 40 percent by general class participation, and 20 percent by the in-class presentation and critical essay.

Students with alternative proposals as to how they should be assessed are encouraged to raise them with the instructor. And serious proposals will be welcomed. This must be done at the beginning of the course.

3. Prerequisites:
Everything except the senior requirement.