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Measuring the purity of a science practitioner

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Jeremiah Dyke Posted: Tue, Apr 20 2010 6:07 PM

Would you say that a good benchmark for measuring someone’s dedication to truth is the fact that they wish to unemployee themselves? For example, there is really no need for an economist in a free market nor a psychologist without mental illness, etc for the hard sciences. Wouldn’t this rightfully mean that non free market economists should rightfully change their title? To state-efficiency pushers or econ-statisticians?   

 

Read until you have something to write...Write until you have nothing to write...when you have nothing to write, read...read until you have something to write...Jeremiah 

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scineram replied on Tue, Apr 20 2010 6:32 PM

They

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Would you say that a good benchmark for measuring someone’s dedication to truth is the fact that they wish to unemployee themselves? 

Sure, but only if you're willing to extend this to LvMI faculty. 

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows"

Bob Dylan

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Hayekianxyz, why do you say that?

To paraphrase Marc Faber: We're all doomed, but that doesn't mean that we can't make money in the process.
Rabbi Lapin: "Let's make bricks!"
Stephan Kinsella: "Say you and I both want to make a German chocolate cake."

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ricarpe replied on Tue, Apr 20 2010 9:16 PM

Would you say that a good benchmark for measuring someone’s dedication to truth is the fact that they wish to unemployee themselves?

I don't understand this question.  Could you rephrase or elaborate a little more?

For example, there is really no need for an economist in a free market nor a psychologist without mental illness, etc for the hard sciences.

A free market does not make economists obsolete.  So long as people act, someone will want to study those actions, why they took place, what was the thought process and planning behind it, what information the actor(s) had that other did not at the time the action was taken, etc.  Unless we all go comatose, there will still be human action to study. 

Likewise, psychologists will not go out of business any time soon, but for the sake of argument should all of humanity decide to hug and play together nicely, you will still have people who study that interaction.

Economics and psychology are not "hard" sciences.  The social sciences and humanities deal with subjective valuation: whether that is an economist studying the actions of a businessman or investor, or a psychologist studying the actions of a spouse abuser or alcoholic.  There will never be a lack of human action to study.

Wouldn’t this rightfully mean that non free market economists should rightfully change their title? To state-efficiency pushers or econ-statisticians?

They can keep their titles.  Their beliefs and persistance in those beliefs allow others to categorize them into the different schools of thought within the science of economics.

"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree." -James Madison

"If government were efficient, it would cease to exist."

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Listening to lectures by the typical blockhead economist always gives me the impression that they try to think of every insignificant tidbit to "study", however useless and unfascinating, all to maintain the illusion that there is good reason for their continuous employment.  As it is with the natural sciences, where no cranny is left unsurveyed by expedition and no stone left materialized in search of every last minute possibility for grant application.

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Hayekianxyz, why do you say that?

Because LvMI fellows work for a private institution, so it's only natural that they'd defend private institutions. Don't get me wrong, I don't think this is a very persuasive argument, and I don't wish to challenge the sincerity of the LvMI fellows for a second. In fact, what I'm saying is that I don't think this is a very persuasive argument at all.

 

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows"

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Sieben replied on Tue, Apr 27 2010 7:02 PM

I think the OP is saying that if someone is doing a job, they're working to make it so the job no longer needs doing. I.e. that math teachers are doing math untill no more math needs doing. Its not likely to happen anytime in the near future but conceivably capital investment by math-people might bring down labor requirements enough to unemploy virtually all math teachers.

Its like Walter Block says - the free market is a race to end all profit.

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