Scientism of the Dismal Science

Notice how the mention of "worldly philosophers" (and I am assuming an allusion to Robert L. Heilbroner's book) triggers a contemplation of the consequences of resisting hegemonic discourse.

Fellow economists, as you can imagine, get very angry with me when I tell them that we face a choice: we can keep pretending we are scientists, like astrologers do, or admit that we are more like philosophers, who will never know the meaning of life for sure, no matter how wisely and rationally they argue. But were we to confess that we are at best worldly philosophers, it is unlikely we would continue to be so handsomely rewarded by the ruling class of a market society whose legitimacy we provide by pretending to be scientists.

From the epilogue to Talking to My Daughter About The Economy Or, How Capitalism Works — and How It Fails by Yanis Varoufakis.

And so for day 2338
08.05.2013