Author archives: Jesús Zamora Bonilla

Je ne regrette rien (3): The chimera of a quantum ‘solution’ to the problem of free will

Je ne regrette rien (3): The chimera of a quantum ‘solution’ to the problem of free will

Philosophy of science

By Jesús Zamora Bonilla

The mysteries of quantum physics have been breeding ground for thousands of attempts to connect any kind of weird hypotheses to ‘science’. The underlying inferential schema in all these attempts seems to be something like the following: X is difficult to understand, and some common-sense intuitions and arguments seem to count against X Quantum physics […]

Je ne regrette rien (2): Consciuous decisions in the lab

Je ne regrette rien (2): Consciuous decisions in the lab

EpistemologyEthicsNeuroscience

By Jesús Zamora Bonilla

Psychologists and neurologists have been interested in the problem of free will since the beginning of their specialities, though the first clearly devised and relevant experiments on the topic were those of Libet and colleagues, in the early eighties. In this famous experiment, subjects who were before a clock, and whose brain electrical waves were […]

The Grand Bazaar of Wisdom (and 6): Mathematical models in the economics of science

The Grand Bazaar of Wisdom (and 6): Mathematical models in the economics of science

EconomicsPhilosophy of science

By Jesús Zamora Bonilla

The most distinctive feature of modern economics is probably its reliance on the methodology of mathematical model building. The final aim of scientific model building is illuminating real phenomena; furthermore, models are basically logical arguments, whose main virtue is that they allow us to see very clearly what follows, and also what does not follow […]

The Grand Bazaar of Wisdom (5): Institutionalist theories of the economics of science

The Grand Bazaar of Wisdom (5): Institutionalist theories of the economics of science

EconomicsPhilosophy of science

By Jesús Zamora Bonilla

I will end this survey of the main contributions to the economics of scientific knowledge (ESK) by discussing the works which attempt to offer a more or less systematic conception of the process of scientific discovery; in this entry, I will talk about ‘institutionalist’ theories, i.e., those that abstain from using mathematical models. The first […]

The Grand Bazaar of Wisdom (4): From the “free market of ideas” to the “republic of science”

The Grand Bazaar of Wisdom (4): From the “free market of ideas” to the “republic of science”

Philosophy of science

By Jesús Zamora Bonilla

Traditionally, economics is not only about the optimisation of some magnitudes, be they utility, profits, wealth, or social welfare. Beyond the assumption that economic agents are rational beings who always try to make the best possible choice, there is the indisputable fact that the objects of economic research are social phenomena, that have to do […]

The moral limits of markets (1): of fines and gifts

The moral limits of markets (1): of fines and gifts

EconomicsEthics

By Jesús Zamora Bonilla

Israeli nurseries are particularly famous amongst economists (at least, amongst experimental economists). An already classical study shown that, following a ‘natural experiment’ in which some day-care centers opted for issuing a fine to parents for late children’s pickups, while other nurseries didn’t, not only helped to decrease (as expected) the frequency of late pickups, but […]