## Metaveri Başlık: **The Tragic Science** Yazar: *George F. DeMartino* Kategori: #books Etiketler: #economics #science ## Altı Çizilenler - Economics is marked by an epistemic paradox. Economists know so much, and yet know so little. Economists know more than laypeople about their field of expertise, which establishes their authority and influence. Laypeople might hope that economists are wizards who can steer the economy any way they like. And economists seeking influence are too often willing to exploit that misapprehension. But economists know far too little to do what is often asked of them. For instance, economists at best have imperfect knowledge about the values and desires of the inscrutable individuals their policies will affect or the full set of circumstances that constitute their lives. Unfortunately, knowing more than others is often misinterpreted as possessing adequate knowledge. - Under the paternalistic ethos, if economists believe that a policy promises large aggregate gains even though it also induces substantial suffering for many, they are obligated to advocate for the policy despite the resistance of its victims. The greater the resistance to the correct policy, in fact, the greater the duty to advocate, and the more quickly the policy should be introduced, before its victims can mobilize to resist. - But just as in medicine a century ago, the new empiricism is taken to warrant economists' elevated authority in policy making. The economist is still taken to know best in matters of public policy. Economists today continue to believe it perfectly acceptable and perhaps even ethically required to advance policy that imposes harms on some members of society, even over public opposition, for the so-called good of society. We find too few efforts among the most influential economists to displace economic paternalism with a new ethos that recognizes and respects the agency and autonomy of those who will bear the consequences of economists' practice. The profession continues to privilege the judgment of the economist over the judgments of the laypeople they serve. - Economic policies can and do induce a very wide range of deep, lasting harms that reach far into the future. The first-order damage is economic, which can be devastating. Subsequent economic improvement often comes too late to offset the costs, and misses those who need its benefits. But the effects of economic policy are not just or even primarily economic. Tracing through the cascading effects we find that economic policy also induces damage to physical and mental health, as well as political, social, moral, and autonomy harms. - The distinction between reparable and irreparable ignorance is crucially important for economic practice. If missing knowledge is discoverable, then it is sensible to allocate resources to discovering it. If, on the other hand, some unknown lies in the domain of irreparable ignorance, then resources put into knowing that unknown are wasted. Even worse, mapping what can’t be mapped is dangerous. It deludes the profession and those who rely on its work into thinking it can know what it cannot in fact ever know.