Economic Thought and Philosophy: YSI Pre-JSHET Conference Workshop

“Economic Thought and Philosophy”

YSI Pre-JSHET conference workshop, Hirosaki University, Japan, 23rd May 2025

The YSI History of Economic Thought working group is organizing a one-day pre-conference workshop on May 23rd, 2025, ahead of the Japanese Society for the History of Economic Thought (JSHET) conference at Hirosaki University, Aomori, Japan (24-25 May 2024). The workshop is an excellent opportunity for ten young scholars working together to discuss their research in depth with peers and senior scholars.  

The Workshop “Economic Thought and Philosophy” encourages early career scholars to reflect on the connections between economics and philosophy. Philosophy and political economy were deeply intertwined in the early modern and modern periods. For example, it is now widely accepted that Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776) cannot be fully understood without his reflections on ethics and justice. Therefore, we can ask various questions regarding this topic. Has the relationship between philosophy and economics changed over time? What was the relationship between economic thought and philosophy before Adam Smith? Can we say that economic theories and methods are still philosophically grounded? The event provides an opportunity for young scholars to discuss and reconsider the relationship between economics and philosophy. 

We intentionally chose a broad subject for the Workshop to invite participants from different backgrounds. Therefore, we encourage applications from early career scholars working on various subjects within the history of economic thought, philosophy of economics, history of philosophy, etc.

Participants: 

We invite ten young scholars to present their work at Hirosaki University. Participants will be asked to pre-circulate some written material before the workshop’s date. It could be a full paper or shorter draft material (around 4.000 words). The workshop itself will be divided into morning and afternoon sessions. In each session, five young scholars will present their work briefly and discuss it with the other fellow participants and our senior scholars. 

YSI will provide accommodation and limited travel stipends for the participants selected. 

To promote YSI within Japan, we strongly encourage local young scholars to apply and participate in the workshop. Additionally, we ask all the participants to attend the JSHET Conference, which accepts papers in English. The call for papers is currently open. 

If you are interested in attending the workshop, you should:

1. be a young scholar (Master and Doctor students, post-docs, and early career scholars);
2. be a member of the YSI History of Economic Thought Working Group;
3. attend the JSHET Conference;
4. submit a short abstract (max. 300 words) of your research to this form by November 8th (note that this is also the deadline to submit abstracts for the JSHET Conference).