Prudentia   a magazine from www.deirdremccloskey.org

The Cult of Statistical Significance: How the Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives Stephen T. Ziliak and Deirdre N. McCloskey University of Michigan Press, 2007 How the most important statistical method used in many of the sciences doesn't pass the test for basic common sense Purchase | About | Preface | Contents RECENT & RELATED ARTICLES: • "Science is judgment, not only calculation: a reply to Aris Spanos's review of The Cult of Statistical Significance" Stephen T. Ziliak and Deirdre N. McCloskey, in the inaugural issue of Erasmus Journal of Philosophy and Economics 1 (1): 165-170. • Peter Lamal's review: "Statistically Significant Results Vs. Oomph" (Skeptical Inquirer 32 (6): 53-54). • People are talking about Ziliak's and McCloskey's The Cult of Statistical Significance

Recently released (14 August 2008) draft of vol. 2 of The Bourgeois Virtues (330 pp.) for your review:
Bourgeois Deeds: How Values Made Innovation and the Modern World

NOW AVAILABLE The Cult of Statistical Significance: How the Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives by Stephen T. Ziliak and Deirdre N. McCloskey University of Michigan Press, 2007 How the most important statistical method used in many of the sciences doesn't pass the test for basic common sense Purchase | About | Preface | Contents

McCloskey explains why Prudentia (right) holds a mirror and a snake — and why she features so prominently in this online magazine.

"Art, Fleeing from Capitalism": A Slightly Sublime Interview/Conversation with Deirdre McCloskey (and Jack Amariglio).

• "Listening, Really Listening: A Response to Graafland, Binmore, and Ferber on The Bourgeois Virtues", forthcoming, Journal of Economic Methodology, 2008
• "On Not Knowing Even French", a thoroughly amusing essay by a monolingual professor, June 2008. Published in The (London) Times Higher Education under the title "One Tongue, Very Tied" 17 July 2008.
• "Three Things a Religious Economist Wants Other Religious and Progressive People to Know About the Economy " from the Conference on Religion and the Eradication of Poverty in the Context of Economic Globalization, School of Theology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa, Tuesday, 20th May, 2008

Congratulations to Professor McCloskey on a second honorary degree. (See below for her first.) She was stunned on December 20th to receive the following: "Every year the University awards honorary degrees to a small number of individuals who have distinguished themselves in various walks of life. The Governing Authority of National University of Ireland, Galway, at its recent meeting, with my fullest support and recommendation, decided to invite you to accept an Honorary Doctorate. The ceremony will be Friday, June 27, at 12:00." An Dr Iognáid G. Ó Muircheartaigh, Uachtarán/President

Congratulations to Professor McCloskey on her news from Sweden! The ceremony took place on October 20th 2007.

"The School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, takes great pleasure in informing you that the Faculty Board has decided to designate you to an Honorary Degree of Doctor in Economics (doctor honoris causa) at the university."

Other Recent Publications, Podcast

HOT item: [PDF] McCloskey's review of Gregory Clark's A Farewell to Alms

• PODCAST on The Bourgeois Virtues from Russell Robert's "EconTalk," 3-31-08 (60 min.)
• "Sliding Into PoMo-ism from Samuelsonianism" [Pomo Jack and David], in a special issue of Rethinking Marxism on Jack Amariglio and David Ruccio's Postmodern Moments in Economics, spring 2008
• "Comment on Jonung and Stahlberg's 'On Gender Balance in the Economics Profession'." [Gender Symposium], in EconJournalWatch, spring 2008
• "Review of Marglin's The Dismal Economy" [MMargline Review] for the Times Higher Education Supplement (March 2008)
• "Irish [and Dutch and Other] Poets, learn Your Trade: The Political Economy of European Poetry" [Irish and Dutch Poetry], for a session at the Modern Language Association meetings in Chicago, December 2, 2007
• "Latest Version of a Few Chapters from Bourgeois Deeds: How Values Made the Modern World, 1700-1848" Presented to the Economic History Workshop, Northwestern, March 2008 [Northwestern Seminar Version]
• "Thrift as a Virtue, Historically Criticized" [Thrift as a Virtue], in Revue de Philosophe Economique 8 (2007)
• "The Faithful and Hopeful Economic Agent" [Faith and Hope, AEA 2008], being a version of Chps. 10-13 of The Bourgeois Virtues
• "The Industrial Revolution" [The Industrial Revolution and Liberty] in The Handbook of Libertarianism, forthcoming 2008
• "Bourgeois Towns: How Capitalism Became Virtuous, 1600-1776," [Cliometric Society Bourgeois Towns], for the session of the Cliometrics Society, "The Rise of Bourgeois Society," ASSA Meetings, New Orleans, Jan 6, 2008.

McCloskey's forthcoming Bourgeois Towns has been split into two volumes. Bourgeois Deeds: How Capitalism Made Modernity, 1700-1848 is available for download and comment; Bourgeois Rhetorics: How Capitalism Became Virtuous, 1600-1848 will be posted on the site in near future.

TheEconomicConversation.com is an interactive website featuring selected chapters of a new principles textbook (The Economic Conversation, Palgrave, 2008) authored by Arjo Klamer, Deirdre McCloskey, and Stephen Ziliak. The book takes a ground-breaking approach to teaching economics, and stresses that economics is in fact a conversation. The authors invite you to become a Guest Lecturer.

On The Bourgeois Virtues: Andrea Gabor's feature for "The Creative Mind" in Strategy+Business, Deirdre McCloskey's Market Path to Virtue: An idiosyncratic economist preaches the innate morality of business "The question is not whether greed is natural — or even good — but whether it adequately explains capitalist behavior" more »

Admin note: This site is always evolving. We appreciate bug reporting and website comments

Deirdre N. McCloskey is Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Professor of Social Thought at Academia Vitae, Deventer. Print date: Tuesday, 6 January 2009

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