Date: Mon, 27 May 1996 19:06:52 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: Nobel nuttiness


Rahul Mahajan wrote:

> It's quite
> absurd that a Nobel in Economics was ever instituted, considering that
> Nobel never included it and certainly any idea that it was a
> well-established field where prizes could be given for nonideological
> reasons was premature.

Yes, I agree. It is symbolic, though, of the contempt that mainstream
economists have towards those in the social sciences since _they_ aren't
*real* social scientists! (PU). After all, anthropologists, psychologists,
political scientists, and [... heaven forbid!...] sociologists don't get a
Nobel. That means we're better than them, right? [...barf...].

There's some story I heard back on PEN-L many moons ago about how some
conservatives paid [!] the Nobel Committee to give out Nobels in economics
and they are not really Nobel Prizes, only awards or somesuch. Dr. Blood,
do you remember the full story?

> In fact, the main criterion the committee uses seems
> to be whether you belong to the Chicago School.

That's a fairly recent trend. For decades the awards went to faculty at
MIT and Harvard.

> Pity the poor guys on the
> faculty there who don't have Nobels.

Don't pity them. Pity a lowly radical adjunct like myself -- the wretched
of the academic earth.

> I suppose we had to have Peace and
> Economics so that members of the elite who go all out to justify the status
> quo can be acknowledged too.

It just shows that the system works, right?

Jerry



     --- from list marxism2-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---