Commentary: In Response to the Paper by Oran R. Young, How Can International Regimes Solve Environmental Problems? (see pp. 9–29)
The terrain, wonderfully covered by Oran Young, is a dichotomized world consisting of stories wishing to be theories. On the one side we find the economizers – disembedded consequentialists acting according to something called ‘collective action theory.’ On the other side we have the socially embedded citizens of the world intent on practicing what is good (or right). Young helps us to see that both ‘theories’ (and I use that term with great resistance) are ample enough to accommodate almost anything that might appear threatening. We have, in other words, accommodating metaphors whose adherents can pick and choose among confirming signals (assiduously watched for), and can fail to notice disconfirming signals with alacrity. Philosophers would mumble something about verificationist tendencies. As Shackle would put it, ‘what is seen is built upon what is thought (Shackle 1992, p. 66).’ To be fair here, economists have perfected the craft of seeing only what is thought so my comment should not be considered a criticism of political scientists and others who worry about international regimes.
Visa-Free Movement and Intercultural Communication: Expectations and Experiences of Kenyans in Ghana
University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh
Economic Theory and the Problem of Translation
Translation is a vital step in the construction and appraisal of economic theories. Unfortunately, it is also the source of some very serious and unavoidable problems. The task of translation is not merely one of interpreting the special symbolisms employed in the formulation of economic theories. That is putting the cart before the horse. We must first translate "into" those symbolisms before we can translate "out of" them into ordinary language. Two consequences of this fact are that (1) translation has a great deal to do with the initial choice of symbolisms deemed appropriate to our theoretical purposes, and (2) a certain amount of pretranslational analysis of ordinary language becomes necessary to render translation adequate and effective. Throughout this paper, translation is treated as a purely logical problem and not as a psychological, sociological, or professional problem of communication between the various members of the economics profession.