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Date: | Mon Jun 9 20:34:56 2008 |
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Samuel Bostaph wrote:
> >>Principles of choice are different from the
> >>thought processes involved in choosing or in other aspects of thinking.
>
> >Principles without thought processes.
>
> >What an interesting principle. Is it thoughtless?
>
>
>As a little reflection [a thought process] will
>reveal to you, to say that principles of
>anything are different from the thought
>processes involved in applying them is hardly
>to say that the principles are without thought processes.
That's not clear to me at all, even after
reflection. If I posit any "principle of
thought," am I not also positing a thought
process? If I advance as a principle of thought,
"men always make choices based on maximum utility
to oneself," am I not at the same time saying
"when men choose, they make a calculation (go
through a thought process) of the relative
utilities of their choices." In this case, there
would appear to be no distinction. Perhaps you
can give us a concrete example of what you mean.
Principles of thought lie in domains other than
economics. Economists, qua economists, simply
have no training or expertise in this area; they
must turn to other sciences for guidance on such
subjects. To refuse to acknowledge the proper
domain of the other sciences converts economics
from a pure science to a pure ideology.
John C. M?daille
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