On the 29 of June 2009, the Pope Benedict XVIth published Caritas in Veritate, his third encyclical letter. It was addressed to the clergy but also to “lay faithful and all people of good will”. In the two papers assembled here under one single title, the author enters in dialogue with the...

The author addresses the question of interdisciplinary studies based on his own experience. His negative experiences are confirmed by the results of a quantitative survey demonstrating that the proportion of citations from other disciplines is very low in four examined fields (economics, law,...

In this paper we have presented arguments for simplicity as epistemological criterion of economic research. In particular, have been important aspects that show how the tradition of the theory, to make principle simplicity to represent many empirical data of experience or information, was one of...

Academic economists have a strong influence on political discourse in Russia by delivering through courses of "Economic theory" and "Institutional economics" very harmful conceptual elements for political discourse. This article proposes to change radically these courses in such a way that,...

This paper revisits the writings of the philosopher of science, Paul Feyerabend, in order to argue for pluralism in economics education. In particular, the benefits of pluralism, the role of science and the notion of scientific rationality are examined from the perspective of economics.

As part of the classical university, the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of the University of Tartu in Estonia has excellent opportunities for offering academic economic education. Despite the long-standing tradition of teaching economics, it has been necessary in the past 15...

Most people believe economists are more selfish than noneconomists. The reasons for such belief and for the related moral condemnation of economists remain confused. Both charges and evidence are insufficient to support substantial judgements. Further elaboration would be welcome before drawing...

This paper investigates the standard economic paradigm as to the possibility for the agents to become revolutionaries, i.e., to develop the desire and effective action to overturn the prevailing social order. We take our cue from Amartya Sen’s remark that the Second Fundamental Theorem of...

The author describes his experience with the process of peer reviews by economists of economics departments. On the bases of roughly 20 reviews of departments in the public and private sectors over two decades, he discusses how the process works and what can be accomplished by it and identifies...

Only 19 per cent of academic staff in the Economics Department at Macquarie University are women, a proportion that has not improved over the last decade. We investigate the reasons for this gender imbalance, focusing particularly on why it is that few qualified women have applied for positions....