Topics Philosophy

Question Hi It seems to me there is a striking similarity between Economics and Philosophy. It's hard to find the words, but I feel like the 'same parts' of my brain are being used when I am trying to solve a philosophical problem (generally) and when I think about a problem in economics (and this isn't the case in other Arts subjects). It could be because the problems in economics overlap with problems in philosophy but I feel there's more to this intuition (something methodological?) than that. It is no surprise many prominent philosophers contributed greatly to the field of economics (JS Mill, Hume, A Smith, Marx, etc) and Philosophy/Economics majors score closely in standardized tests like the LSAT. Is this an impression that is common amongst professional philosophers?

Accepted:
October 18, 2012

Comments

You make an interesting observation about yourself that is important to contextualize. You find a similarity between the kind of economics you are learning and the kind of philosophy you are learning. I dare say that if you were reading Jean Paul Sartre you would find different "parts of your brain" involved! If you are learning the analytic philosophy literature and rational market economics perhaps what they have in common is abstraction and generality? Many prominent philosophers contributed greatly to many fields (biology, physics, psychology), not only to economics. I'm skeptical about any special relation between economics and philosophy.