Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Symbolic Capital Of The Neoliberal University, Chad Lavin

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

The paper examines the concerns about the enduring value of liberal education in the broader context of a shift from a liberal to a neoliberal society. While so much literature on “the neoliberal university” tends to characterize neoliberalism as a hostile force invading the sacred space of the university, the knowledge comprising neoliberalism is in large part the product of research coming out of universities. Using the concept of symbolic capital to explore the role of university researchers in developing and consecrating neoliberal ideas, the paper argues that even in this era of heightened skepticism toward experts and expertise, university …

Accounting For The Gift: Theology And Ethics In Accounting, Daniel Sebastian

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

Accounting is often assumed to be a neutral presentation of the facts of economic activities and actions. Its double-entry system means that it is always in balance and comports to the rigor of mathematical formulas, and it is taken to be a matter of empirical counting that lends it certainty as well. The dissertation argues that this description of accounting is inadequate. Accounting is better seen as a political tool and technology for producing trust that can help resolve social conflicts. As such, accounting is not value-neutral but carries within it a particular sociality that has moral implications. These moral …

The Roaring Lion Of Berlin: The Life, Thought, And Influence Of Eugen Dühring, Arden Roy

Undergraduate Research Symposium

The life and influence of 19th-century German polymath Eugen Dühring remain but a mere footnote in the history of ideas, being primarily relegated to the status of little more than a theoretical rival to Marxism in the German socialist movement and the occasional object of Freidrich Nietzsche's rhetorical flogging. Despite the current consensus on the subject, Eugen Dühring was a scholar of vast, remarkable learnedness, contributing greatly to philosophy, economics, and the natural sciences. The aim of this talk will be to clear the fog surrounding the life and work of the controversial blind scholar and give an account of …

Economic Method: The Science In Trade, Arthur I. Keegan

Student Publications

In observing the universe, philosophers have offered their thought processes for understanding the perceivable reality, which we know as science. These thought processes are constructed into scientific methods to conquer the unknown. Economics existing through human interaction in society holds its own characteristics that scholars have sought out to outline the nature of trade. Within this book, the various approaches of science will be presented and tests across various case studies in Economics to test validity of arguments and connections between thought processes across different disciplines. This work is guided by Steven Gimbel and his work Exploring the Scientific Method …

The Constraints Within Capitalism: An Evaluation Of Ann E. Cudd's "Enlightened Capitalism" In 'Capitalism, For And Against', Phoebe E. Shown

The Cardinal Edge

There is extreme partisanship in the United States regarding whether or not capitalism should continue to be implemented. This partisanship is apparent in Capitalism, For and Against: A Feminist Debate, by Ann E. Cudd and Nancy Holmstrom. The published debate between Cudd and Holmstrom ultimately discusses whether systemic changes can be placed upon capitalism for an ideal "enlightened capitalism", presented by Cudd, or if the United States should adopt a new economic system altogether, suggested by Holmstrom. I address Ann E. Cudd's argument for an "enlightened capitalism" by summarizing her main ideas, and proceed to refute it on the grounds …

Social Reproduction And Covid-19, Caroline I. Donovan

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

As Covid-19 rips across the world we are collectively asked to examine the structures of society to see what is working and what we can change. What can we learn from the roughly 6.9 million deaths (and counting) worldwide? How can we prevent something like this from happening again? This paper follows the course of Covid-19 from its birth in Wuhan, China, to the present day of mid-April 2023. By looking at the ways in which we have reacted to the pandemic, we are able to look forward and imagine new ways of tackling future pandemics and other pressing problems …

China’S Global Monopoly On Rare-Earth Elements, Gustavo Ferreira, Jamie Critelli

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This article delivers a novel economic analysis of US dependence on China for rare-earth elements and sheds light on how Western nations may exploit the limitations of limit pricing to break China’s global monopoly in rare-earth element production and refinement. This analytical framework, supported by a comprehensive literature review, the application of microeconomic and industrial organization concepts, and two case-study scenarios, provides several policy recommendations to address the most important foreign policy challenge the United States has faced since the end of the Cold War.

When Half The Neighborhood Is Missing: How To Overcome Systemic Poverty And Gentrification Following The Models Of Dudley Street And Mission Waco, Kevin A. Brown, Kevin A. Brown, Kevin A. Brown

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

Abstract

By following the examples of Mission Waco and The Dudley Street Initiative, it is possible to renew a sense of beloved community by changing the narrative of poverty and gentrification by rebuilding the village through empowering the poor and marginalized.

Mission Waco and The Dudley Street Initiative are comprehensive sustainable communities because they combine numerous social and economic interventions under developed strategic plans. The principal question that this dissertation seeks to answer is whether these models can be implemented in local communities to help overcome gentrification and poverty. Implementation can be successful if we can identify the problem, rethink …

An Understanding Of Prisons, Race, And Class In The United States, Seth Ketchum

Honors Projects

After a summer of protests sparked by police brutality, the United States remains divided on this most important issue. This paper will seek to contextualize this country’s situation to explain that these protests stem from a history of inequality, in order to argue against claims that the protests are unjustified. With a multidisciplinary approach, we can begin to observe just how unequal this country is and understand what drives so many people to protest during the middle of a global pandemic.

Against Monetary Functionalism: A Social Ontology Of Money, James Payne

Honors Program Theses

This paper explores the concepts of individualism and holism in social ontology through an analysis of the ontology of money by integrating insights from the Critical Realist tradition as well as the distinction between metaphysical grounds and anchors. In doing so it examines alternative explanations of money's ontology like the paradigmatic approach of John Searle. The results of the inquiry are then connected in relation to the models of social explanation in mainstream economics.

Global Technology Economic Analysis Paradigm, Iwasan D. Kejawa Ed.D

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

Abstract

Is true that it is not only the consumers that make the economy prospers? Business and government also play a role in the economy of a country and corporation. “The GLOBAL technology economy is driven perhaps by the example of a consumer-based society and capital driven citizenry," according to the article in the investor guide of 2013. The role of the government is very important in businesses, organizations and consumers alike depending on the decisions made by the government officials spending of the government. Research have indicated that dependencies of government, organizations, businesses and consumers are intertwine or intermediary. …

Introduction To "The Oxford Handbook Of Ethics And Economics", Mark D. White

Publications and Research

Economics and ethics are both valuable tools for analyzing the behavior and actions of human beings and institutions. Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, considered them two sides of the same coin, but since economics was formalized and mathematicised in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the fields have largely followed separate paths.

The Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Economics provides a timely and thorough survey of the various ways ethics can, does, and should inform economic theory and practice. The first part of the book, Foundations, explores how the most prominent schools of moral philosophy relate to economics; …

The Ethical Composition Of Every Bite, Rylee Charbeneau

Undergraduate Research

While the physical process of eating fulfills a natural human instinct, food choice continues to fill us with anxiety. Driven by a burgeoning awareness of the many factors involved in our food choices and the impact our meals have upon the environment, ourselves, and others, we are increasingly being forced to make the right eating choices. This poses a complex moral question: how are we to eat? The purpose of this project was to research perspectives that address this question to find an achievable and applicable solution to this uncertainty. This research compares the ideas of Peter Singer and Michael …

Martin Luther King Jr. On Economy, Ecology, And Civilization: Toward A Mlk Jr-Inspired Ecotheology, Theodore Walker

Perkins Faculty Research and Special Events

This MLK Jr-inspired ecotheology [eco-theology] connects “economics,” “ecology,” and “ecological civilization” to the theological ethics of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Though we often remember King primarily as a domestic civil rights leader; attention to King’s book—Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967) reveals that he advanced a global ethics. King called for replacing recourse to war with nonviolent resistance to evil, and for abolishing poverty throughout “the world house.” He prescribed that we “civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty.” King was concerned with civilizing “the world house” (house …

On The Relationship Between Economics And Ethics, Mark D. White

Publications and Research

Economics and ethics have been linked since the days of Adam Smith, but this connection became tenuous after the formalization of economic theory in the twentieth century, the success of which in academia, government, and business serves to insulate it from ethical critique. Nonetheless, a field of “economics and ethics” has developed to restore this connection, albeit in two directions with disparate methodological approaches: one applying mainstream economic theory, primarily based in utilitarian ethics, to topics of ethical concern, and the other incorporating alternate forms of ethics, such as deontology and virtue ethics, to enrich economic analysis.

Waiting As Resistance: Lingering, Loafing, And Whiling Away, Harold Schweizer

Faculty Journal Articles

„Waiting as Resistance: Lingering, Loafing, and Whiling Away” is a critique of the economics of consumption, suggesting that the widespread denigration of waiting as lost time and its economic and psychological displacements in consumer goods amount to a denigration of human life itself. In the practice of lingering and its related temporalities, the author proposes, we regain an appreciation of the fundamental temporality of all things, that everything, we humans included, is constituted by time. Conceptually indebted to Theodor Adorno and substantiated with reference, chiefly to Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” and other poetic works, this argument throughout opposes the …

Playing-With The World: Toy Story's Aesthetics And Metaphysics Of Play, Jonathan Hendricks

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pixar’s Toy Story (John Lassiter, 1995) is not just a story about toys and the children that play with them, but a demonstration of how we interact with the world. This thesis looks at the way in which both main children, Andy and Sid, interact with their toys and how this interaction is one that is structured by way of what Martin Heidegger calls “Enframing.” In this modality of playing, toys and other things and entities in the world, and the world itself, appear to the children as on-hand resources for use at any time and can be molded, as …

Ethics And Economics: An Internal Relation, Bruce Morito

The Canadian Society for Study of Practical Ethics / Société Canadienne Pour L'étude De L'éthique Appliquée — SCEEA

The relationship between ethics and economics in the modern age is typically viewed as external. This view is usually articulated in the notion that for economic relations to be ethical, an ethic must be imposed. Otherwise, economic relations are amoral. I try to show how the relationship is actually best explained by adopting an explanatory framework of inter-dependent arising, according to which the emergence and development of both ethical and economic relations is a matter of mutual determination. Ethical values emerge in the course of developing economic relations and, in turn, direct or at least implicate economic relations. The consequences …

Emission Permits As A Monetary Policy Tool: Is It Feasible? Is It Ethical?, Tracey Mccowen

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The price of emission permits is deemed too low to mitigate climate change. In three studies, policy approaches to pricing carbon in a market setting are examined. First, the emission permit market is analyzed comparatively to how the ethanol mandate impacted prices in the corn market. This leads to the realization that the marketization of carbon is more like a currency than a physical commodity. The next study examines emission permits as a monetary policy tool. Emissions correlate GDP output, thus central banks can use emission permits as forward guidance, as a means to optimize the price for climate change …

Review Of Steven Mcmullen's Animals And The Economy, Bob Fischer

Between the Species

N/A

Economic Reasoning And Fallacy Of Composition: Pursuing A Woods-Walton Thesis, Maurice A. Finocchiaro

OSSA Conference Archive

Woods and Walton deserve credit for including (in all editions of their textbook Argument) a discussion of “economic reasoning” and its susceptibility to the “fallacy of composition.” Unfortunately, they did not sufficiently pursue the topic, and argumentation scholars have apparently ignored their pioneering effort. Yet, obviously, economic argumentation is extremely important, and economists constantly harp on this fallacy. This paper calls attention to this problem, elaborating my own approach, which is empirical, historical, and meta-argumentational.

Ethics And Market Economic System: A General Review And A Survey, Reza G. Hamzaee

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Recent global recession has motivated this predominantly historical and exploratory research of thoughts and perceptions. A continuous planning of governmental correction of any market failure, such as various types of externalities and information asymmetry, has been strongly recommended by the pioneers of free enterprise systems. Capitalism—in which private ownership of means of production, physical capital, human capital, financial capital, brand-name capital, social capital, land, and mineral deposits are all protected by law without implementation of a series of certain evolving ethical standards and principles—may not continue to be the same efficient system as implied to be by the cost-benefit balancing …

Voice Without Say: Why Capital-Managed Firms Aren’T (Genuinely) Participatory, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Why are most capitalist enterprises of any size organized as authoritarian bureaucracies rather than incorporating genuine employee participation that would give the workers real authority? Even firms with employee participation programs leave virtually all decision-making power in the hands of management. The standard answer is that hierarchy is more economically efficient than any sort of genuine participation, so that participatory firms would be less productive and lose out to more traditional competitors. This answer is indefensible. After surveying the history, legal status, and varieties of employee participation, I examine and reject as question-begging the argument that the rarity of genuine …

The Failure Of Certainty: Why Economics Needs Rhetoric, Jerry Petersen

OSSA Conference Archive

Privileging deductive first principles over inductive contingencies, I argue, contributed to the economic meltdown of late and will continue to limit the range of reasonable solutions available to solve entrenched economic problems. I cite Toulmin’s critique of scientific certainty and the rancor over the demise of the ninth planet Pluto to posit a role for rhetoric in making valid claims across all fields of study, calling for more productive uncertainty subject to vigorous argumentation.

Labor Culture: Labor Morality Under Socialism, Vladimir Magun

Russian Culture

Soviet leaders had always taken a keen interest in workers' behavior and labor motives and sought to keep labor morality under strict state control. A complex network of values and regulations was developed for this purpose after the October Revolution of 1917. They were best articulated in the "political economy of socialism" which purported to present a scientific picture of the country's economic life. Textbooks on socialist economy were widely circulated in the Soviet Union and appropriate courses included into a core curriculum for all higher education institutions in the country. Basic tenets of socialist political economy were taught in …

Ethics And Critical Thinking, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

This chapter seeks to demonstrate that investigations in positive economics rely on ethical perspectives and practices, and further, that critical thinking requires a wider ethical viewpoint than normative economics generally permits. Positive economics generally relies, for example, on the unsung virtues of the investigator who demonstrates honesty and transparency in the search for truth. Ethical failures in this regard are not uncommon (DeMartino, 2011). But another unstated ethical perspective appears in the worldview from which a researcher sets out to model behavior. Modelers almost always assume that rationality requires that an economic actor undertake an action in pursuit of a …

The Economics Of The Atomic Bomb: Cost And Utilization, Jonathan M. Davis Mr.

Senior Honors Theses

Few moments in human history can be compared to the culmination of events that brought the atomic bomb into creation. It is incredible to contemplate that while a nation was fighting a two front war that spanned from Europe into the Pacific, that the United States was able to utilize the time, energy, brains, materials, manpower, and capital to complete a project in four years. That under any other circumstances would have taken greater than half a century to complete.

First, this thesis will discuss breakthroughs in research that led scientists to believe that the atomic weapons could be built, …

Antinomies Of Capitalism (Review Of Globalization Its Discontents Joseph Stiglitz, Fernando Estrada

Fernando Estrada

We present the central arguments of the critics on the limits and scope of globalization on the work

Financial Theory Has A Paradigm A La Kuhn?, Fernando Estrada

Fernando Estrada

This article aims to discuss two issues relatively linked. The first is an evaluation of the concept of paradigm of T. Kuhn in his representative work: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions ERC, [Ku96] and the complementary version by W. Stegmüller, Structure and dynamics of theories EDT, [Steg83]. This refined interpretation of the concept of paradigm allows for a more complete set of central Kuhnian concept. The second objective is to analyze the scope of the Kuhnian concept of models to evaluate financial explanation. Is explored preliminarily proposed fractal models / multifractal (F / M) of Mandelbrot [Mand97, 82, 02, 05]. …

Moral Markets: The Critical Role Of Values In The Economy By Paul J. Zak (Book Review), Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

This volume contains the fruits of a two-year seminar on ethics and economics funded by the John Templeton Foundation and administered through the Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research. Participants came from the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities, and included Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith and other figures such as Frans de Waal, Herbert Gintis, Robert Frank, and Robert Solomon (for whom the book is dedicated in memoriam). The book’s editor, Paul Zak, is a pioneer in the emerging field of neuroeconomics, which uses medical technology to discover the physiological manifestations of cooperative and altruistic behavior. A theme of …