6th annual conference on Economics and CST examines the human person
The 6th Annual Lumen Christi Conference on Economics and Catholic Social Thought provoked a thoughtful discussion on conceptions of the human person within economics and theology, and CREDO members played an instrumental role in the conference. CREDO’s own Mary Hirschfeld (Villanova) gave the keynote address at the conference on April 1 at the University of Chicago, and she was joined by fellow CREDO member Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde (Penn), as well as Francis Cardinal George of Chicago, economist Rachel Kranton (Duke), and philosopher Russell Hittinger (Tulsa).
Cardinal George, in his last conference as acting Archbishop of Chicago, opened the event by emphasizing the importance of conversation between economists and bishops. He noted that past conversations were often difficult because of different anthropologies. “Are we as man, a free contracting individual, and is that enough to think about as you develop an economic or political theory? Or is man a social being, always enmeshed in relationships, obligations, and mutual duties?” posed the Cardinal.
Francis Cardinal George and Mary Hirschfeld
Hirschfeld – well-qualified with a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard and a Ph.D. in theology from Notre Dame – focused her talk on what the different fields could learn from the other. She noted that while the economic view of man, homo economicus, is often much broader than what theologian’s caricature, it nevertheless has a very different understanding of the good: utility models the good as a insatiable ladder by which one climbs up to higher levels of good in this life, whereas a Catholic view emphasizes balance by ordering temporal goods well, and mirroring God’s ordering through the exercise of virtue. (See extracts of Hirschfeld’s talk here.)
Fernandez-Villaverde vigorously defended economic modeling, emphasizing the importance of precise language in economics. He argued that decision theory, not rational choice theory, is at the heart of economics, and he emphasized some of the broader applications currently in the literature, including temptation: “What is temptation? I’m going to the gym at 6:30 in the morning, and I see Ace 10 bagels, and I say, ‘let me stop and get a couple of bagels.’”
“Every man has his price… This means that people value money, but they also value other things such as integrity and social norms,” explained Kranton. Social norms and ideals are closely linked to our social identities, whether given like race or chosen like profession, and these help determine the economic choices we make.
Hittinger posed the strength and limits of thinking like an economist as an important question. Citing Pope Francis’ Evangelium Gaudium description of the economic point of view as an ‘absolutized point of view’, Hittinger noted, “It is unclear whether our [the CST] tradition confronts the economic method as yet another ideology in the sequence of ideologies to which we have had to respond over two or three centuries.”
The second day of the conference involved talks by CREDO members Dan Finn (St. John’s), Joe Kaboski (Notre Dame), Andrew Yuengert (Pepperdine), economists Carol Graham (Brookings), and Serge-Christophe Kölm (Les Ecoles des Hautes Etudes en Science Social).
The conference was especially honored by the presence of the president of the USCCB, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, and Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo—chancellor of the pontifical academies of sciences and the Pope’s personal representative for the new anti-slavery Global Freedom Network. On a sad note, Gary Becker, who was originally scheduled for the public panel, had to unexpectedly withdraw. He passed away a month later on May 3.
Full videos from the conference are available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgee9rvN2SI&index=1&list=PLaAlnD2mRjw6dNOYcxWl5DuekGTl4OF5Q
