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What are values?
January 29, 2025 @ 15:00 - 17:00

Abstract: This second chapter of my dissertation examines the nature of values and their role in shaping scientific theories. From this it aims to understand how values, by the same token, affect economic theories and practices, laying the groundwork for understanding how they intertwine with facts in economic thought. A significant development in recent literature is the questioning of rigid boundaries between science and policy. As argued by many authors (Douglas, 2000; Reiss, 2008, 2013; Kuhn, 1977, et.al), this interconnection significantly influences the evaluation standards used by scientists. This perspective has led to growing recognition of non-epistemic values in scientific judgment, especially in their function of weighing and interpreting epistemic values. The chapter is structured as follows: first, as a key focus of the chapter is the distinction between epistemic and non-epistemic values, a crucial dichotomy in philosophy of science and economics. Epistemic values – such as simplicity, consistency, explanatory power, and predictive accuracy – are examined for their role in theory selection and scientific methodology. Non-epistemic values, encompassing moral, social, and political commitments, are analyzed for their influence in science. The chapter then turns to the specific question: “Where are the ‘values’ in Economics?” This section critically examines the presence and impact of values in various aspects of economic theory and practice. It challenges the notion of value-neutrality in economics, arguing that values permeate economic thinking at multiple levels, from the choice of research questions to the interpretation of data and the formulation of policy recommendations. The chapter concludes by preparing the ground for a deeper discussion on the entanglement between facts and values in subsequent chapters. In this seminar I intend to discuss this chapter as a work-in-progress since it is not already completed.
Bio: Catarina de Brito Carreira Tello de Castro completed her B.A. degree in Philosophy in 2017, obtaining the official diploma in 2018, by the Faculty of Letters of the University of Lisbon. She also completed her M.A. in Political Science and International Relations at the Catholic University of Portugal by the Institute of Political Studies, in January 2021, where she was supervised by Professor André Azevedo Alves, with whom she researched about the work of the economist Gary Becker within the scope of Political Science. Catarina has been a Doctoral Student at CEPS since 2021, with an FCT grant supervised by Professor Roberto Merrill and Co-supervised by Julian Reiss. Her work focuses mainly on the areas of Economic Theory, Philosophy of Economics, Political Philosophy and Epistemology.