Charles Djordjevic, Catherine Herfeld: The Evaluative Aspect of the Concept of Addiction in Economics: The Case of Gary Becker
In this talk, we explore “thick concepts,” i.e., concepts that have both an evaluative and descriptive aspect, and their relation to economics. To render this project tractable, we focus on the Theory of Rational Addiction proposed by economists Gary Becker et al. (1988, 1996) as a case study. We argue that there is a tension between Becker’s view of economics as being a purely empirical enterprise and the concept of addiction that he ultimately proposes. While Becker acknowledges a tension between the ‘ordinary’ concept of addiction as a thick concept and economics, his attempt to remove the evaluative aspect of that concept fails. Our argument hinges on a reading of Becker as employing the strategy of explication. On this reading, Becker’s project of constructing an explicatum that discards non-epistemic values fails. Finally, some possible ramifications of this failure are discussed.
In this talk, we explore “thick concepts,” i.e., concepts that have both an evaluative and descriptive aspect, and their relation to economics. To render this project tractable, we focus on the Theory of Rational Addiction proposed by economists Gary Becker et al. (1988, 1996) as a case study. We argue that there is a tension between Becker’s view of economics as being a purely empirical enterprise and the concept of addiction that he ultimately proposes. While Becker acknowledges a tension between the ‘ordinary’ concept of addiction as a thick concept and economics, his attempt to remove the evaluative aspect of that concept fails. Our argument hinges on a reading of Becker as employing the strategy of explication. On this reading, Becker’s project of constructing an explicatum that discards non-epistemic values fails. Finally, some possible ramifications of this failure are discussed.