David Hume, Economic Rationality, and Policy: Symposium Introduction

Abstract

This is an introduction to the symposium, "David Hume, Economic Rationality, and Policy," forthcoming in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Topics treated in the symposium include the idea of true preferences; Hume's theory of preferences in relation to his economic philosophy; justice and markets as a joint coordination regime; the instability of general, inflexible rules; conservatism and liberalism; the ethics of policy innovation; Hume and classical economics; group analytics and contemporary political sociology.

Keywords: David Hume; true preferences; error; endogenous preferences; general rules; instability; coordination regime; conservatism; liberalism; ethics of innovation; classical economics; group analytics

JEL Classification: B12, B30, D91, I31, K10, K11, K12 K15, P16