Comments on: Public Service Announcement http://www.thebigquestions.com/2009/11/05/public-service-announcement/ The Big Questions | Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and Physics Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:35:58 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Snorri Godhi http://www.thebigquestions.com/2009/11/05/public-service-announcement/comment-page-1/#comment-210 Snorri Godhi Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:16:05 +0000 http://www.thebigquestions.com/?p=618#comment-210 Thank you, but ... did I say "index"? Yes, I did; but what I meant was "table of contents". Sorry about that, but if anybody other than me looked at the index, then this is an example of how random mutation can bring a benefit. Speaking of which, I have a couple of questions about The Armchair Economist, if you don't mind. My more complex question can wait until I have re-read chapter 8. My simpler question (which might still require a complex answer) is: who introduced the concept of incentives in economics? that is, who introduced it explicitly, not implicitly. Incidentally, I embraced the concept of incentives with enthusiasm because I had previously learned to think of human behavior in terms of maximizing rewards/payoffs. This concept goes back to Edward Thorndike to the best of my knowledge. Thank you, but … did I say “index”? Yes, I did; but what I meant was “table of contents”. Sorry about that, but if anybody other than me looked at the index, then this is an example of how random mutation can bring a benefit.

Speaking of which, I have a couple of questions about The Armchair Economist, if you don’t mind. My more complex question can wait until I have re-read chapter 8. My simpler question (which might still require a complex answer) is: who introduced the concept of incentives in economics? that is, who introduced it explicitly, not implicitly.

Incidentally, I embraced the concept of incentives with enthusiasm because I had previously learned to think of human behavior in terms of maximizing rewards/payoffs. This concept goes back to Edward Thorndike to the best of my knowledge.

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