This is an in-person event at King’s College London. To RSVP, please obtain your complimentary ticket here.
About the talk:
The true epistemic worth of mathematical market models lies in the thought experiments they permit. They force us to consider how likely it is to confront in practice the conditions assumed during the model’s construction and to ask ourselves whether we should want our own world to work in such a way. The long history of hypothetical mathematical modelling in economic theory involves a progressive escape from the empirical so that the thought experiments enabled by the modelling process can operate solely to their own internal logic. But it has usually been recognised that an additional epistemic function can be served when, in a second stage, the secrets revealed by the model are placed in direct dialogue with contextually sensitive studies of the complex behavioural environments in which actual lives are being led. However, mathematical market models are no longer the sole preserve of economic theory. They are now also an increasingly prominent part of all social science subject fields, their presence in multiple literatures confirming the success of the economics imperialism phenomenon. The changing face of explanation within these literatures has been a constant source of anxiety for the subject specialists, who have been told to prepare themselves for being displaced because they can never provide insights into social life that are as general as those of hypothetical mathematical models. Yet here the two-stage epistemic process has routinely disappeared. It is no longer always the case of setting up the thought experiment to act as a logical precursor to a range of interesting empirical questions. Instead, the logical working through of the assumptions that underpin mathematical market models are all-too-often treated as if they themselves were empirical findings. Different epistemic functions are therefore conflated, leaving many epistemological puzzles in their wake.
Matthew Watson’s new book, False Prophets of Economics Imperialism, tells the historical story of how economic theory’s escape from the empirical has created multiple pathways for the epistemic function of mathematical market models. His talk at KCL will concentrate on the philosophical basis for adjudicating between these competing claims as a way of thinking about the limits of economics imperialism as an intellectual strategy.
Location:
TBC
About the Speakers:
Matthew Watson is Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. From 2013 to 2019 he was also an Economic and Social Research Council Professorial Fellow. His August 2024 book, False Prophets of Economics Imperialism, is currently the centrepiece of the ongoing dissemination from his Fellowship project, ‘Rethinking the Market’.
