[lbo-talk] Larry Summers on the academic hiearchy

Jim Devine jdevine03 at gmail.com
Fri Feb 17 08:51:54 PST 2006


this attitude is very common among economists. very common. It's amazing that old Larry expressed it publicly.

My attitude is that the problem is that the topics covered by sociology are just _more difficult_ than those covered by economics, and economists are clever enough to try to answer the easier questions. Interpersonal relations, culture, tradition, etc. are much more complex than markets.

On 2/17/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> "'President Summers asked me, didn't I agree that, in general,
> economists are smarter than political scientists, and political
> scientists are smarter than sociologists?' [former Dean] Ellison
> said. 'To which I laughed nervously and didn't reply.'"

-- Jim Devine / Bust Big Brother Bush!

"There are no whole truths; all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil." -- Alfred North Whitehead



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