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THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS IN ECONOMICS

Year 2023, Volume: 13 Issue: 1, 250 - 262, 31.03.2023
https://doi.org/10.30783/nevsosbilen.1180069

Abstract

Use of thought experiments can be traced back to ancient times. Thought experiments are one of the important methods for sciences and philosophy. Although there is some consensus on the characteristics of the thought experiments, the same cannot be said about as to which mental operations should be accepted as thought experiments. Thought experiments are a widely used epistemic tool of scientific investigation in both the natural and the social sciences. Although natural sciences seem to appeal to thought experiments more often, the method of thought experimentation is not confined to the natural sciences. However, there is no agreement on the nature and status of thought experiments used in social sciences. Economics is a social science and most papers in theoretical economics contain thought experiments. Indeed, at a first glance contemporary economics might seem like one big thought experiment. On the other hand, economics proceeds with models. In this regard, in this paper thought experiments within the context of economics is examined. Also, it will be argued that although there can be some borderline cases, it is hardly possible to consider all of the economic models as thought experiments.

References

  • Akerlof, G. (1970). The market for 'lemons': Quality uncertainty and the market mechanism. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 84, 488-50.
  • Ateş, M.E. (2015). Bilimlerde Düşünce Deneyleri. Mediterranean Journal of Humanities, 125-138.
  • Birchler, U. & M. Bütler (2007). Information Economics. New York.
  • Brown, J. R. (1991). The Laboratory of the Mind: Thought Experiments in the Natural Sciences. London.
  • Brown, J. R. (2011). The Laboratory of the Mind: Thought Experiments in the Natural Sciences. 2nd ed. London.
  • Brown, J. R. & Yiftach Fehige Y. (2019). Thought Experiments. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/thought-experiment/). Erişim Tarihi: 8.01.2022.
  • Buzzoni M. (2016). Thought Experiments and Computer Simulations. (Ed.), Magnani L., Casadio C., Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology. Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics, Vol 27 (57-78). Heidelberg-New York.
  • Cartwright, N. (1989). Nature’s Capacities and Their Measurement. Oxford.
  • Cartwright, N. (1999). Capacities”. In (Ed.), J. Davis, W. Hands, Wade, & U. Mäki, The Handbook of Economic Methodology, (54-48). Cheltenham.
  • Çevik, A. D. (2021). Bilimsel Modellerin Sağlamlığı Üzerine. Felsefe Arkivi- Archives of Philosophy, 55: 165-181.
  • de Regt, H. W., & Dieks, D. (2005). A Contextual Approach to Scientific Understanding. Synthese, 144, 137–170.
  • Gendler T. S. (1998). Galileo and the Indispensability of Scientific Thought Experiment. The British Journal for Philosophy of Science, 49, 397–424. Gendler, T. S. (2004). Thought Experiments Rethought—and Reperceived. Philosophy of Science 71 (5): 1152–63.
  • Guala, F. (2002). “Models, Simulations, and Experiments”. In (Ed.), L. Magnani, L, N. Nersessian, Model-Based Reasoning: Science, Technology, Values, (59-72). New York. Guala, F. (2005). The Methodology of Experimental Economics. Cambridge.
  • Hacking, I. (1992). Do thought experiments have a life of their own?. In D. Hull, M. Forbes, & K. Okruhlik (Eds.), Proceedings of the 1992 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Vol. 2, (302–308). East Lansing.
  • Hausman D. M. (1992). The Inexact and Separate Science of Economics. Cambridge and New York.
  • Heison, G. & Steiger, O. (2008). Eigentumsökonomik. Marburg.
  • Hume, D. (1985). Essays, Moral, Political and Literary. Indianapolis.
  • Keven, N. (2021). Thought Experiments Naturalized. MetaZihin: Yapay Zeka ve Zihin Felsefesi Dergisi, 4 (1), 1-13.
  • Klein, U. (2003). Experiments, Models, Paper Tools: Cultures of Organic Chemistry in the Nineteenth Century. Stanford.
  • Knuuttila, T. (2005). Models, Representation, and Mediation. Philosophy of Science, 72, 1260–1271.
  • Knuuttila, T. (2011). Modelling and Representing: An Artefactual Approach to Model-Based Representation. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, Volume 42, Issue 2, 20, 262-271.
  • Kühne, U. (2005). Die Methode des Gedankenexperiments. Frankfurt.
  • Maas, H. (2014.) Economic Methodology: A Historical Introduction. London.
  • Macho-Stadler, I. & J. D. Perez-Castrillo (2001). An Introduction to the Economics of Information: Incentives and Contracts. 2th Edition. Oxford.
  • Mäki, U. (2005). “Models are Experiments, Experiments are Models”. Journal of Economic Methodology 12 (2), 303-315.
  • McMullin, E. (1985). Galilean Idealization. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 16, 247–273.
  • Menger C. (1892). On the Origin of Money. Economic Journal, 2, 239–255.
  • Morgan, M. S. (1990). The History of Econometric Ideas. Cambridge.
  • Morgan, M. S. (1999). Models, Stories, and the Economic World. In (Ed.), U. Mäki, Fact and Fiction in Economics (178-201). Cambridge.
  • Morgan, M.S. (2013). Nature’s Experiments and Natural Experiments in the Social Sciences. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 43 (3): 341–57.
  • Morrison, M. & Morgan, M. S. (1999). Models as Mediating Instruments. In M. S. Morgan & M. Morrison (Eds.), Models as Mediators. Perspectives on Natural and Social Science (10–37). Cambridge.
  • Moue, A. S., & Masavetas, K. A., & Karayianni, H. (2006). “Tracing the Development of Thought Experiments in the Philosophy of Natural Sciences”. Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift Für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie, 37(1), 61–75.
  • Nersessian, N. J. (1992). In the theoretician’s Laboratory: Thought experimenting as Mental Modeling. In (Eds.) Hull, D., M. Forbes, and K. Okruhlik. Proceedings of the 1992 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Vol. 2, (291–301). East Lansing.
  • Nowak, L. (1980). The Structure of Idealization: Towards a Systematic Interpretation of the Marxian Idea of Science. Dordrecht.
  • Nowak L. (1989). The Stage Method, Idealization, and the Nature of Dialectics. Philosophy of the Social Sciences. 19(1):81-87.
  • Reiss, J. (2012). Counterfactuals. In (Ed.), H. Kincaid. Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Social Science, (154-183). New York.
  • Reiss, J. (2013). Geneological Thought Experiments. In (Ed.), J.R. Brown, L. Meynell, M. Frappier. Thought Experiments in Philosophy, Science, and the Arts (177-191). New York, London.
  • Schabas, M. (2008). Hume’s Monetary Thought Experiments. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 39 (2):161-169.
  • Schabas, M. (2018). Thought Experiments in Economics. In (Eds.), Mike T. Steuart, Yiftach Fehige and James R. Brown. Routledge Companion to Thought Experiments (171-182). New York.
  • Sørensen, R. (1992a). Thought Experiments. Oxford.
  • Sørensen, R. (1992b). Thought experiments and the epistemology of Laws. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 22: 15–44.
  • Stuart, M.T, Fehige, Y.& Brown, J.R (2018). Thought Experiments: State of the Art. In (Eds.), Michael T. Stuart, Yiftach Fehige & James Robert Brown. The Routledge Companion to Thought Experiments (1-28). London.
  • Tetlock, P. E. & Belkin, A. (Eds.) (1996). Counterfactual Thought Experiments in World Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • Tetlock, P.& Lebow R.N. & Parker, N.G. (2006). Unmaking the West: "What-If" Scenarios that Rewrite World History. Ann Arbor.
  • Thoma, J. (2016). On the Hidden Thought Experiments of Economic Theory. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 46: 1 129–146.
  • Toms S., & Beck M., (2007). The limitations of Economic Counterfactuals: The case of the Lancashire Textile Industry. Management & Organizational History, 2(4), 315–330.
  • Yardımcı, A. B. (2020). “Düşünce Deneylerinin Tarihsel Kökeni, Kavramın İlk kullanımı ve Ernst Mach’ın Düşünce Deneyi. (Ed.), E. Doğan Current and Historical Debates in Social Sciences içinde (51-68). London.
  • Yardımcı, A. B. (2020). Norton-Brown Tartışması Bağlamında Bilimsel Düşünce Deneyleri. Beytulhikme International Journal of Philosophy, 10 (4) 1235-1255.

İKTİSATTA DÜŞÜNCE DENEYLERİ

Year 2023, Volume: 13 Issue: 1, 250 - 262, 31.03.2023
https://doi.org/10.30783/nevsosbilen.1180069

Abstract

Düşünce deneylerinin kullanımı antik dönemlere kadar götürülebilir. Düşünce deneyleri bilimler ve felsefe için önemli yöntemlerden birisidir. Literatürde her ne kadar düşünce deneylerinin belirli başlı özellikleri üzerinde bir düzeyde uzlaşı bulunuyor görünse de halen hangi zihinsel operasyonların düşünce deneyleri olarak değerlendirileceği ile ilgili bir görüş birliği yoktur. Düşünce deneyleri doğa bilimlerinde ve sosyal bilimlerde yaygın biçimde kullanılan epistemik bir araçtır. Her ne kadar doğa bilimleri sosyal bilimlere göre düşünce deneylerine daha sık başvursa da bu yöntem doğa bilimleri ile sınırlandırılmamıştır. Tarih, iktisat gibi sosyal bilimler de zaman zaman çeşitli amaçlarla düşünce deneylerine başvururlar. İktisat sosyal bir bilimdir ve teorik iktisat disiplininde üretilen çoğu yayın düşünce deneyleri içermektedir. Hatta ilk bakışta güncel iktisat büyük bir düşünce deneyi gibi görünebilir. Öte yandan iktisat modeller ile ilerler. Bu bağlamda bu makalede düşünce deneyleri iktisat bağlamında değerlendirilecektir. Buna ek olarak her ne kadar bazı sınır durumları olabilse de iktisattaki tüm düşünce deneylerini modeller olarak değerlendirmenin oldukça güç olduğu iddia edilecektir.

References

  • Akerlof, G. (1970). The market for 'lemons': Quality uncertainty and the market mechanism. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 84, 488-50.
  • Ateş, M.E. (2015). Bilimlerde Düşünce Deneyleri. Mediterranean Journal of Humanities, 125-138.
  • Birchler, U. & M. Bütler (2007). Information Economics. New York.
  • Brown, J. R. (1991). The Laboratory of the Mind: Thought Experiments in the Natural Sciences. London.
  • Brown, J. R. (2011). The Laboratory of the Mind: Thought Experiments in the Natural Sciences. 2nd ed. London.
  • Brown, J. R. & Yiftach Fehige Y. (2019). Thought Experiments. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/thought-experiment/). Erişim Tarihi: 8.01.2022.
  • Buzzoni M. (2016). Thought Experiments and Computer Simulations. (Ed.), Magnani L., Casadio C., Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology. Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics, Vol 27 (57-78). Heidelberg-New York.
  • Cartwright, N. (1989). Nature’s Capacities and Their Measurement. Oxford.
  • Cartwright, N. (1999). Capacities”. In (Ed.), J. Davis, W. Hands, Wade, & U. Mäki, The Handbook of Economic Methodology, (54-48). Cheltenham.
  • Çevik, A. D. (2021). Bilimsel Modellerin Sağlamlığı Üzerine. Felsefe Arkivi- Archives of Philosophy, 55: 165-181.
  • de Regt, H. W., & Dieks, D. (2005). A Contextual Approach to Scientific Understanding. Synthese, 144, 137–170.
  • Gendler T. S. (1998). Galileo and the Indispensability of Scientific Thought Experiment. The British Journal for Philosophy of Science, 49, 397–424. Gendler, T. S. (2004). Thought Experiments Rethought—and Reperceived. Philosophy of Science 71 (5): 1152–63.
  • Guala, F. (2002). “Models, Simulations, and Experiments”. In (Ed.), L. Magnani, L, N. Nersessian, Model-Based Reasoning: Science, Technology, Values, (59-72). New York. Guala, F. (2005). The Methodology of Experimental Economics. Cambridge.
  • Hacking, I. (1992). Do thought experiments have a life of their own?. In D. Hull, M. Forbes, & K. Okruhlik (Eds.), Proceedings of the 1992 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Vol. 2, (302–308). East Lansing.
  • Hausman D. M. (1992). The Inexact and Separate Science of Economics. Cambridge and New York.
  • Heison, G. & Steiger, O. (2008). Eigentumsökonomik. Marburg.
  • Hume, D. (1985). Essays, Moral, Political and Literary. Indianapolis.
  • Keven, N. (2021). Thought Experiments Naturalized. MetaZihin: Yapay Zeka ve Zihin Felsefesi Dergisi, 4 (1), 1-13.
  • Klein, U. (2003). Experiments, Models, Paper Tools: Cultures of Organic Chemistry in the Nineteenth Century. Stanford.
  • Knuuttila, T. (2005). Models, Representation, and Mediation. Philosophy of Science, 72, 1260–1271.
  • Knuuttila, T. (2011). Modelling and Representing: An Artefactual Approach to Model-Based Representation. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, Volume 42, Issue 2, 20, 262-271.
  • Kühne, U. (2005). Die Methode des Gedankenexperiments. Frankfurt.
  • Maas, H. (2014.) Economic Methodology: A Historical Introduction. London.
  • Macho-Stadler, I. & J. D. Perez-Castrillo (2001). An Introduction to the Economics of Information: Incentives and Contracts. 2th Edition. Oxford.
  • Mäki, U. (2005). “Models are Experiments, Experiments are Models”. Journal of Economic Methodology 12 (2), 303-315.
  • McMullin, E. (1985). Galilean Idealization. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 16, 247–273.
  • Menger C. (1892). On the Origin of Money. Economic Journal, 2, 239–255.
  • Morgan, M. S. (1990). The History of Econometric Ideas. Cambridge.
  • Morgan, M. S. (1999). Models, Stories, and the Economic World. In (Ed.), U. Mäki, Fact and Fiction in Economics (178-201). Cambridge.
  • Morgan, M.S. (2013). Nature’s Experiments and Natural Experiments in the Social Sciences. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 43 (3): 341–57.
  • Morrison, M. & Morgan, M. S. (1999). Models as Mediating Instruments. In M. S. Morgan & M. Morrison (Eds.), Models as Mediators. Perspectives on Natural and Social Science (10–37). Cambridge.
  • Moue, A. S., & Masavetas, K. A., & Karayianni, H. (2006). “Tracing the Development of Thought Experiments in the Philosophy of Natural Sciences”. Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift Für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie, 37(1), 61–75.
  • Nersessian, N. J. (1992). In the theoretician’s Laboratory: Thought experimenting as Mental Modeling. In (Eds.) Hull, D., M. Forbes, and K. Okruhlik. Proceedings of the 1992 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Vol. 2, (291–301). East Lansing.
  • Nowak, L. (1980). The Structure of Idealization: Towards a Systematic Interpretation of the Marxian Idea of Science. Dordrecht.
  • Nowak L. (1989). The Stage Method, Idealization, and the Nature of Dialectics. Philosophy of the Social Sciences. 19(1):81-87.
  • Reiss, J. (2012). Counterfactuals. In (Ed.), H. Kincaid. Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Social Science, (154-183). New York.
  • Reiss, J. (2013). Geneological Thought Experiments. In (Ed.), J.R. Brown, L. Meynell, M. Frappier. Thought Experiments in Philosophy, Science, and the Arts (177-191). New York, London.
  • Schabas, M. (2008). Hume’s Monetary Thought Experiments. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 39 (2):161-169.
  • Schabas, M. (2018). Thought Experiments in Economics. In (Eds.), Mike T. Steuart, Yiftach Fehige and James R. Brown. Routledge Companion to Thought Experiments (171-182). New York.
  • Sørensen, R. (1992a). Thought Experiments. Oxford.
  • Sørensen, R. (1992b). Thought experiments and the epistemology of Laws. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 22: 15–44.
  • Stuart, M.T, Fehige, Y.& Brown, J.R (2018). Thought Experiments: State of the Art. In (Eds.), Michael T. Stuart, Yiftach Fehige & James Robert Brown. The Routledge Companion to Thought Experiments (1-28). London.
  • Tetlock, P. E. & Belkin, A. (Eds.) (1996). Counterfactual Thought Experiments in World Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • Tetlock, P.& Lebow R.N. & Parker, N.G. (2006). Unmaking the West: "What-If" Scenarios that Rewrite World History. Ann Arbor.
  • Thoma, J. (2016). On the Hidden Thought Experiments of Economic Theory. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 46: 1 129–146.
  • Toms S., & Beck M., (2007). The limitations of Economic Counterfactuals: The case of the Lancashire Textile Industry. Management & Organizational History, 2(4), 315–330.
  • Yardımcı, A. B. (2020). “Düşünce Deneylerinin Tarihsel Kökeni, Kavramın İlk kullanımı ve Ernst Mach’ın Düşünce Deneyi. (Ed.), E. Doğan Current and Historical Debates in Social Sciences içinde (51-68). London.
  • Yardımcı, A. B. (2020). Norton-Brown Tartışması Bağlamında Bilimsel Düşünce Deneyleri. Beytulhikme International Journal of Philosophy, 10 (4) 1235-1255.
There are 48 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language Turkish
Journal Section Economics
Authors

Ahmet Dinçer Çevik 0000-0001-5897-7381

Early Pub Date March 28, 2023
Publication Date March 31, 2023
Published in Issue Year 2023 Volume: 13 Issue: 1

Cite

APA Çevik, A. D. (2023). İKTİSATTA DÜŞÜNCE DENEYLERİ. Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli Üniversitesi SBE Dergisi, 13(1), 250-262. https://doi.org/10.30783/nevsosbilen.1180069