Law & Society Blog

Here is a great list of online economic textbooks and interactive tutorials. Thanks to Marginal Revolution for the pointer.

Joseph Stiglitz has posted an excellent review of Benjamin Friedman’s new book The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth. The moral implications of economic growth are, indeed, among the most pressing philosophical and practical problem of our time. Few choices affect more people more immediately than economic policies.

Tyler Cowen has a series of thoughtful posts about avian flu over at Marginal Revolution. Here is a taste from Should we confiscate Tamiflu property rights? Against those who propose to do just that, Cowen argues:
Let’s offer Roche a large prize for speeding up the construction of the U.S. plant. This can include legal […]

Is there a tension between the theory of cultural cognition and the effects on our moral actions from seemingly insubstantial situational differences? And if so, what kind of experiments could help us resolve that tension?
Recent empirical research has provided us with important insights into the connection of cultural values and the perception of risks. Not […]

This might be an old hat for some, but I was delighted to stumble upon the Political Compass survey website. I would have wished for a more detailed explanation of the methodology and the explanatory power of the questions, as they relate to the two axis right/left and authoritarian/libertarian. My impression is that most of […]

hook up your neurons to mine, I can only connect to my own thoughts, not to yours.Third, the goal of science is not to explain but to make predictions, to bring order to our perceptions, and to enable us to act successfully in ever more creative ways.Fourth, for most everyday actions, the delusion of ontological objectivity is a useful shorthand. But once the presence of the observer cannot be ignored, for example, in quantum physics but also in questions of ethics, we need to abandon our simplifying assumptions and take the limitations of our cognitive apparatus into account.On a more speculative note, the persistence of the “subject perceives object” approach to cognition may well be explained by the fact that both subject and object are creations of our mind.

I posted a revised draft of my review article, The Project of Freedom as a Justification for Punishment, on SSRN. I still have time to make edits and I would welcome any comments, preferably by email.