Saturday Feb. 9, 2008 - 7th annual ASET conference -
Ethics, Economics and Freedom: The Morality of MarketsThe conference as an amazing experience. This 7th annual conference of the Arizona Society for Economics Teachers was attended by over 100 Arizona educators and 50 students of economics. Co sponsored by the
Arizona Council on Economic Education the morning was packed with three powerful presentations.
Up first was
Dwight Lee who kicked off the day's discussion with an historical overview of freedom, markets and Milton Friedman. Lee's eloquent (and humorous) description of the struggle between Keynes and Friedman was reminiscent of Yergin and Stanislaw's The Commanding Heights as Lee showcased Friedman's intellectual journey.
Lee described the seminal work of Friedman, his work analyzing the role of money, the Phillips curve and the controversy over the role of the government. He concluded his well thought overview of economics and freedom, by outlining Milton Friedman's legacy as a Freedom Fighter:
Advocate for individual liberty
Freedom as an ultimate value
Freedom as an instrumental value
Lee ended with a quote from Adam Smith:
" The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it." (WN: B.IV, Ch.2, Of Restraints upon the Importation from Foreign Countries in paragraph IV.2.10)
Our next speaker, John Morton, provided an overview of the latest NCEE publication
Teaching the Ethical Foundations of Economics.
Co written with
Jonathan Wight this book contains 10 lessons that reintroduce an ethical dimension to economics in the tradition of Adam Smith, who believed ethical considerations were central to life. Utilizing these innovative instructional materials your students will learn about the important role ethics and character play in a market economy and how, in turn, markets influence ethical behavior. Click
here to read Jonathan's introduction.
Our closing speaker
David Schmidtz integrated philosophy with the previous discussion of freedom and teaching economics.
Professor of Philosophy and Joint Professor of Economics David Schmidtz conducts the Program in the Philosophy of Freedom. The aims of the program in the philosophy of freedom are
To provide undergraduate students with a two-course sequence in Philosophy of Freedom,
PHIL 320a and
PHIL 320b.
To have visiting professors give lectures topics related to Philosophy of Freedom.
To provide workshops for alumni of the University of Arizona Philosophy graduate program.
To give current graduate students fellowship opportunities that advance their teaching and research.
David began with a reminder that, as educators, our role is to empower our students to participate in the complex real world and that role will demand that we provide authentic opportunities to develop critical thinking skills and demonstrate the results of their thinking. He ended his introduction by sharing a transferable teaching tidbit, one that I will certainly incorporate.
David uses the following incentive in his large (300 student) undergraduate class. At random, he selects a student and asks if they are in attendence. If not, the student will have one point deducted from their final grade. If they are present, the student is asked to summarize the key point from the previous class. The student is free to pass. If this is the case, no points are deducted. However, if the student provides an acceptable summary, the student is awarded 1 point and the process proceeds to the "bonus" round. Here another student is selected at random and asked to summarize the current class. Essentially this checks preparation, asking the student the key points from the required reading. If the student successfully answers, 5 bonus or extra credit points are awarded to the student. An incorrect answer or silence is not penalized.
Schmidtz went on to organize his presentation around the familiar economic concept of the
gains from trade.After contrasting a zero sum view of interaction with a positive sum view, Schmidtz presented the underpinning or preconditions needed to realize the gains from trade - voluntarism and property rights. With these in place, specialization leads to collaboration which widens the sphere of benefit to the agents in society. Following Adam Smith, the increasing size of the market allowed for increases in specialization and increases in benefit.
At this point, Schmidtz shared a second transferable teaching tidbit. This in the form of a story about Thomas Edison. Schmidtz asked if Edison had endowed a charitable foundation. (I was unable to determine if Edison did). Schmidtz then asked, would the world have been a better place, had he donated his wealth to charity. Then Schmidtz asked if Edison had paid taxes and repeated his previous question, would the world be better off if he had paid taxes.
The conclusion - Edison's contribution to improving society, raising standards of living and stimulating growth was the light bulb. This invention has far more lasting and important positive consequences that would a charitable contribution or a payment of up to 100 per cent in taxes.
As you can tell, we have a wonderful day and many thanks are due to ASET president Dr. Alice Temnick and Arizona Council on Economic Education Program Director Ashlay Hall.
The program ended with the recognition of Brett Haglin as Arizona Economics Teacher of the Year and Elizabeth Volard as recipient of the John C. Morton service award.
Please feel free to leave comments, share your reaction to the conference, or leave questions for ASET, ACEE or the 2008 participants at this blog.
Posts
