Description
Book SynopsisDon Lavoie's published work encompasses a wide range of subjects - socialism, hermeneutics, information technology, and culture. The subjects appear unrelated, but a close examination of his research reveals an underlying unity of thought and an economics at sharp variance with the post World War II mainstream. The contributors to this volume explore the legacy of his scholarship and its implications for economics.
Three themes run throughout Don Lavoie's work and are explored in these chapters, the overarching one being the importance of social intelligence to economics. Second, and related to this, was his belief that certain institutions or practices are better at creating social intelligence than others - what might be termed the primacy of liberty or voluntaryism. Thirdly, he asserted that economics is more closely aligned with the humane disciplines than with the physical. As these essays make clear, if the next generation of economists does integrate economics with the humanities, some of the credit must go to Don Lavoie.
Students and scholars of economics, methodology, and the humanities more broadly will find this a provocative and enriching collection.
Trade Review'This book highlights Don Lavoie's multidisciplinary approach to the study of economics. In his view, economics is closer to the humanities than to the hard sciences, notwithstanding the claim often made in the literature that economics is indeed "a hard science". True to Lavoie's vision, the book contains theoretical articles and case studies which link economics to several fields of study. It is a delight to see emphasis placed on the "hows and whys" underlying market processes.' -- Alan A. Rabin, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, US
'The authors do well-merited honor to Don Lavoie with carefully written contributions that not only are excellent for a memorial volume but could constitute a selection of outstanding journal articles. They tie together Lavoie's many superficially different interests in, among others, comparative economic systems, market processes, computer programming, and epistemology. In particular, they emphasize how markets and prices enhance and coordinate inevitably dispersed knowledge. So doing, they further develop the contributions of Ludwig von Mises and especially of F.A. Hayek to the debate over socialist calculation.' -- Leland Yeager, Auburn University and University of Virginia, US
Table of ContentsContents: PART I: INTRODUCTORY 1. Humane Economics: An Introduction to the Work of Don Lavoie Jack High PART II: SOCIALIST CALCULATION 2. Calculation, Competition and Entrepreneurship Israel M. Kirzner 3. Don Lavoie’s Contributions to Comparative Economics Peter J. Boettke and David L. Prychitko 4. A Typology of Interventionist Dynamics Robert L. Bradley Jr. PART III: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 5. Institutions as Abstraction Boundaries Bill Tulloh and Mark S. Miller 6. ‘New’ Collaborative Learning Environments: The Convergence of Hermeneutics and Hypertext Virgil Henry Storr PART IV: PHILOSOPHY 7. Hermeneutics and Liberty: Remembrance of Don Lavoie G.B. Madison 8. Hermeneutics in Economics: On the Status of ‘As-If’ Functions Wayne J. Froman 9. Humility and Truth in Economics Deirdre McCloskey PART V: CULTURAL STUDIES 10. The Development of Cultural Economy: Foundational Questions and Future Direction Emily Chamlee-Wright 11. Innovation of Cardio-Imaging Technology at Hewlett-Packard and HP/Philips Don E. Kash PART VI: APPENDIX 12. Subjective Orientation and Objective Wealth: Entrepreneurship and the Convergence of Groupware and Hypertext Capabilities Don Lavoie Bibliography of Don Lavoie’s Publications Index
