Can someone recommend a book on Economics basics with the same level of force and completion as a Jaynes/Drescher/Pearl/Nozick/Dawes?
I mean, with powerful freeing laws (I feel like this is exactly analogous to EY’s requiredism in the free will sequence) that can let my imagination wander without fear of fooling myself too much.
I realize that this may be asking for too much given the nature of the field, but anything that is close will do.
I think that “Introduction to economic analysis” by Preston McAfee fits the bill. I love that book: it’s ideology free and treats economics as a branch of mathematics, constructing a model of the market and then analyzing various extensions to said model. It’s only limit is that it’s mostly about microeconomics, but in that area is one of the best. Oh, and it’s available for free.
I think that “Introduction to economic analysis” by Preston McAfee fits the bill.
A solid choice after the David Friedman text. I didn’t mention it earlier because it strikes me as a bit too mathy and theoretical for the novice reader. D. Friedman’s Price Theory just does a better job as an intro text IMHO, and in fact the author also wrote a very good pop-sci book (Hidden Order).
Can someone recommend a book on Economics basics with the same level of force and completion as a Jaynes/Drescher/Pearl/Nozick/Dawes?
I mean, with powerful freeing laws (I feel like this is exactly analogous to EY’s requiredism in the free will sequence) that can let my imagination wander without fear of fooling myself too much.
David Friedman’s book on Price Theory is just what you’re looking for. Assuming you want an intro text that’s not too formal and math-based (similar to Jaynes/Drescher/etc.).
I like Sam Bowles’s Microeconomics: Behavior, Institutions, and Evolution for introducing some of the behavioral econ and evolutionary game theory material. It isn’t good as a first text, but would go well with either McAfee’s or Friedman’s text. The exposition is great although you should look elsewhere for exercises.
Can someone recommend a book on Economics basics with the same level of force and completion as a Jaynes/Drescher/Pearl/Nozick/Dawes?
I mean, with powerful freeing laws (I feel like this is exactly analogous to EY’s requiredism in the free will sequence) that can let my imagination wander without fear of fooling myself too much.
I realize that this may be asking for too much given the nature of the field, but anything that is close will do.
I think that “Introduction to economic analysis” by Preston McAfee fits the bill.
I love that book: it’s ideology free and treats economics as a branch of mathematics, constructing a model of the market and then analyzing various extensions to said model. It’s only limit is that it’s mostly about microeconomics, but in that area is one of the best.
Oh, and it’s available for free.
A solid choice after the David Friedman text. I didn’t mention it earlier because it strikes me as a bit too mathy and theoretical for the novice reader. D. Friedman’s Price Theory just does a better job as an intro text IMHO, and in fact the author also wrote a very good pop-sci book (Hidden Order).
David Friedman’s book on Price Theory is just what you’re looking for. Assuming you want an intro text that’s not too formal and math-based (similar to Jaynes/Drescher/etc.).
I like Sam Bowles’s Microeconomics: Behavior, Institutions, and Evolution for introducing some of the behavioral econ and evolutionary game theory material. It isn’t good as a first text, but would go well with either McAfee’s or Friedman’s text. The exposition is great although you should look elsewhere for exercises.
I don’t want to sound dumb, but who are these people and what did they write?
Jaynes wrote “Probability theory—the logic of science”—THE text for objective Bayesianism (and an inspiration to the early Yudkowsky)
Drescher wrote “Good and real”, a compendium of philosophy that is basically LessWrong in a book.
Pearl wrote “Causality”, an influential text for Timeless Decision Theory, about how to construct causal models with Bayesian networks.
Nozick and Dawes are outside of my knowledge though, I don’t think they are as ‘canon’ as the first three.