2018-19 Ethics & Economics Challenge Underway!

Second Treatise cover

Last month, Ethics & Economics Challenge started again at The Founders Academy in Manchester, N.H. and Merrimack Valley H.S. in Penacook, N.H. We are trying out an entirely new format this year. Students will focus on reading three works of major historical or contemporary importance in the fields of economics and moral philosophy, and we discuss a chapter or two […]

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From Cavemen to Complex Economies – How Basic Tools Help Us Understand Economics

This year, Ethics and Economics Education of New England (E3NE) was kind enough to ask me to join Professor Jason Sorens and fifteen Merrimack Valley High School (MVHS) students to explore many of the great philosophical and economic ideas of history. In our first gathering, Professor Sorens and I began with what might have seemed an unusual topic, the Simple […]

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Buying Local and Blocking Out the Sun

candle

This week in Ethics & Economics Challenge, we read part of Frederic Bastiat’s satirical essay, “The Candlemakers’ Petition.” In it, the French “petitioners” seek a new law forcing everyone to block sunlight out of buildings. As a result of the law, people will have to buy lots of candles and candelabras, creating a “multiplier effect” that will result in more […]

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