Birsen FilipUniversity of Ottawa
Birsen Filip
Doctor of Philosophy
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Publications (64)
Many factors contributed to the reorganization of political economy in Germany from the time that cameralism flourished up until the establishment of the German Historical School of Economics (GHSE). This chapter explains that a number of important features of the GHSE were deeply influenced by cameralism and the Historical School of Jurisprudence,...
This chapter identifies some of the well-known contributors to the German Historical School of Economics (GHSE), before outlining their arguments against methodological individualism, the laissez-faire doctrine, the deductive method, and the ahistorical and value-free nature of classical economics. It explains that theorists of the GHSE aimed to de...
From the 1870s up until the beginning of WWI, German universities held supremacy over their counterparts in Britain and France when it came to the quality of teaching and the enrollment of foreign students. During this time, a number of young American men went to Germany in order to obtain an advanced education in political economy due to the excel...
Once they returned home, German-trained American political economists who were filled with the ideas of the German Historical School of Economics (GHSE) wanted to reform the discipline of economics in the US so that their own universities could attain the prestigious status enjoyed by their counterparts in Germany. Their efforts led to the establis...
Even though German-trained American political economists were instrumental in reversing the backward situation of political economy in the US, both as an academic discipline and a profession, many of the principles, ideas, and methods of the German Historical School of Economics (GHSE) that they relied upon to facilitate this change effectively dis...
Si Karl Popper et Friedrich Hayek avaient été témoins du type de planification centrale qui a cours depuis le début de la pandémie, ils l’auraient appelé « ingénierie sociale holistique ». Ils étaient convaincus que les partisans du concept d’ingénieur social cherchaient à étendre « le pouvoir de l’État » en contrôlant et en remodelant la société d...
Since the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, governments around the world, along with a handful of unelected medical experts, have been behaving as though they are the social engineers of totalitarian regimes. To be more precise, this select group of political leaders and medical experts have upended economies, as well as the lives of billions of ordi...
'The ultimate goal of vaccine passports, which are based on the notion of "health paternalism," is to coerce people into accepting injections of the experimental vaccines that have been incessantly promoted by politicians, mainstream news, and unelected medical experts for many months. However, those individuals that are not persuaded to submit the...
Cuba is the first nation in Latin America and the Caribbean to bring a COVID-19 vaccine to clinical trials, in spite of the immense challenges it faces from the genocidal U.S. commercial and financial blockade, which has been in place for more than six decades. As such, the island is poised to become a major vaccine supplier for many of its neighbo...
Friedman and Hayek’s respective concepts of freedom have been among the most influential tools used to promote the adoption of free-market economic values, principles, reforms and policies around the world. Their economic views, as well as their emphasis on the importance of individual and economic freedom, not only influenced the economic policies...
This book examines the relationship that prevails between the state and freedom in the works of Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek, as well as those of some of their peers, including Gary Becker, James Buchanan, and George Stigler. The author explains that their concept of freedom was largely derived from the principles and values of neo-liberalis...
Instead of treating the earth and its resources as things to be respected, cultivated, cared for, and sustained, neo-liberalism encourages people to regard them as mere factors of production that need to be controlled, challenged, manipulated, over-exploited, and destroyed in search of capitalist gains. This chapter discusses the rise of market-ori...
This chapter focuses on the role that neo-liberalism has played in directing the course of scientific research and technological innovation. Specifically, neo-liberal reforms have helped the private sector gain considerable control over the direction and objectives of science and technological progress since the 1980s, while limiting the role of go...
Neo-liberals treat many economic issues and problems as matters of conflict between the voluntary organization of society for the purpose of achieving individual ends based on methodological individualism, and the artificial organization of society to attain the common good based on methodological collectivism. In doing so, their goal is to demonst...
Although economics lacks many of the characteristics of the natural sciences, mathematical modelling has been used to make it into a positive science. This has been a key factor in elevating neo-liberals to the status of respected advisors on a variety of matters, even though they lack in-depth knowledge about the discipline of economics, the histo...
This chapter examines the rise and decline of labour unions. Historically, labour unions have always had close relationships with left-wing groups and socialist democratic political parties, which threatened the success of free-market capitalism. Neo-liberal economists criticized unions for violating economic and individual freedom, relying on coer...
The global implementation of neo-liberal reforms and policies has resulted in unfair economic outcomes, as some have profited disproportionately at the expense of others. In particular, people in western countries have seen their living standards rise markedly, while a very small proportion of the global population has gained control over most of t...
Even though neo-liberals oppose public programs and services designed to achieve the common good on the basis that they violate freedom, they fully endorse the partnership that has emerged between corporations and governments, which overwhelmingly serves the private interests of the former at the expenses of the masses. Corporations invest vast sum...
The conclusion explains that neo-liberals played a significant role in the emergence of methodological monism, which has resulted in unfreedom and the poverty of economics, while also delaying the progress of the entire discipline. It underscores the point that neo-liberals have managed to successfully spread their distorted and misleading concept...
Friedman and Hayek’s respective concepts of freedom, which include economic freedom and negative freedom as components, while excluding positive freedom, have been largely supported by other neo-liberal economists. The concept of freedom is a powerful tool used by proponents of neo-liberalism to promote the implementation of free-market economic pr...
This chapter discusses the importance of ethics in economics. Neo-liberals maintain that economics is a branch of the natural sciences, which means it is a value-free discipline that has no relationship with moral and ethical values. They argue that the state imposition of moral and ethical values on society for the purpose of achieving the common...
Since corporations are continuously striving to earn ever greater profits, they expend great efforts to not only provide consumers with the products and services that will satisfy their immediate demands, but also to convince people as to what they should want. To do so, they develop sophisticated marketing campaigns designed to manipulate consumer...
The success of Cuba’s healthcare system is widely acknowledged, even among the country’s adversaries, critics and enemies. However, little credit is given to Fidel Castro’s role and vision in bringing it to fruition. Before the triumph of the Socialist Revolution, Cuba faced persistent shortages of medical workers and had few hospitals. In fact, Cu...
During his presidency, which lasted from January 15, 2007 to May 24, 2017, president Rafael Correa introduced a brand of 21st century socialism to Ecuador, with a focus on improving the living standards of the poorest and most vulnerable segments of the population. His presidency was part of ‘the revolutionary wave’ in Latin America, referred to as...
Hayek is highly-regarded for his contributions to the development of liberal thought, particularly his work on individual freedom, economic freedom, ‘spontaneous’ order, and limited state action. He also defended dictatorial regimes, provided that they were committed to achieving the conditions of a ‘free’ market economy at the expense of unlimited...
Despite its status as the world’s leading school of economics during the second half of the nineteenth century, it is now generally accepted that within the contemporary mainstream, the GHSE has the ‘worst reputation’ of all the research programmes in the history of economic thought. This view has been largely shaped by Austrian School theorists. T...
In spite of his reputation as a defender of freedom, Hayek did not value human rights, claiming it to be a relatively recent concept derived from combining ‘the old civil rights’ with rights derived from Marxism. His conception of freedom is a minimal form of freedom, which serves as a very useful tool in promoting the superiority of the ‘free’ mar...
This chapter focuses on how the development of Popper’s ideas and academic work were influenced by his personal and professional relationships with Hayek. Popper’s Logik der Forschung (The Logic of Scientific Discovery) prompted Hayek and Popper’s initial meeting: it was Hayek’s fascination with this book that compelled him to invite Popper to cond...
Although Hayek did not explicitly cite or source Wilhelm von Humboldt’s (1792) The Limits of State Action as one of his intellectual sources, comparing their work and publications uncovers striking similarities between their ideas and arguments on a number of subjects: especially the concept of freedom, the spontaneous forces of society, the import...
This chapter investigates the points of convergence between Hayek and Popper’s respective critiques of the historicist approach, their accusations that Hegel was one of the main contributors to the development of historicism, and the theoretical errors they made in labelling Hegel a historicist theorist and an important figure in modern totalitaria...
This chapter examines how Hayek and Popper utilized the approach of piecemeal engineering to integrate positive State action into their liberal thoughts, which engendered a rebirth of liberalism in the twentieth century. Hayek and Popper sought to legitimize positive State actions and planning through piecemeal engineering, despite their opposition...
In his early text, The Limits of State Action, Wilhelm von Humboldt raises the Kantian question of the permissibility and legitimate extent of political and juridical coercion, as his contribution to a debate amongst Kantians launched by the publication in 1785 of Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. In arguing for a minimal state, conce...
The concept of freedom is one of the central issues in philosophy and politics. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the concept that prevailed in the mainstream was largely defined according to the principles of the ‘free’ market economy. This chapter focuses on the concept of freedom as formulated by Friedrich von Hayek and Mil...
HegelFRITZMAN J.M.Polity Press, 2014. vii + 185 pp. (paper) - Volume 54 Issue 3 - BIRSEN FILIP
British Ethical Theorists from Sidgwick to Ewing HURKA THOMAS Oxford University Press, 2014, xiv + 310 pp. £30.00 (hardback) - Volume 55 Issue 3 - BIRSEN FILIP
After Hegel: German Philosophy 1840–1900 BEISER FREDERICK C. Princeton University Press, 2014, IX + 232 pp. - BIRSEN FILIP
The victory of the Cuban revolution over the forces of U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista meant that January 1, 1959 marked the first time in 467 years that Cubans were not subjected to serfdom and exploitation by a foreign power. Spain was the first country to exercise dominion over Cuba beginning in 1510, up until the Spanish-American War of...
This paper examines the relationship that prevails between the state, economics, and freedom according to the works of Friedrich Hayek and Karl Polanyi. Hayek, who was one of the most important contributors to the development of the modern market economy and liberalism, formulated a concept of freedom that includes economic and negative freedom as...
This paper examines the relationship that prevails between the state, economics, and freedom according to the works of Friedrich Hayek and Karl Polanyi. Hayek, who was one of the most important contributors to the development of the modern market economy and liberalism, formulated a concept of freedom that includes economic and negative freedom as...