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EconTalk is still great after all these years.

• zubiaur 5y ago
  The recent shift towards philosophy is fascinating. I studied engineering because I thought we made most of the advancements that change the world through the application of technique. It didn’t take me long to realize the importance of economic constraints and the mysterious way in which the market acts as a complex, mediating system. I became fascinated with economics. But then, reading Adam Smith, heck, even Hayek, it’s evident that these guys were also doing philosophy. Their philosophic substrate is what they built their economics on. And that is fascinating. The line separating positive and normative turned out to be blurrier than I thought. I still have an engineering mindset, but I try to be more thoughtful about what can be solved by it, and how the scope in which I apply it matters for my happiness and the ones I love. My objective function is no longer max U. Some of my favorite episodes are, top of my head, Mary Hirschfel on Aquinas and the market; Agnes Callard, on aspiration; Michael Munger on Desires and Morality; the ones with Zena Hits and Jeniffer Fray, but there are so many more. Thanks Russ!